Although the majority of visitors to the Galapagos join tour groups and travel from island to island with a naturalist guide there are also independent travelers hoping to do things on their own. The town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal has several free things to see and do, many of them within walking distance from the anchorage, a few accessible by taxi.
Ecuadorian tourists do not come here for a "nature fix" they use this town as a beach resort, competing for the soft white sands of Playa Mann and Chino beach with the resident sea lion populations. In contrast the backpacker types are primarily here to go surfing and it is a common sight in the mornings to see them waiting for a taxi. For the more energetic there are well marked paths through the scrubby vegetation to Frigate Bird Hill and to Las Tijeretas Bay where you can go snorkeling in crystal clear water, and thirty minutes on foot brings you to La Loberia, a rocky beach with a sea lion colony and land iguanas. A little further away, in the center of the island, is Laguna El Junco, a freshwater lake in the crater of an extinct volcano which is a prime bird watching spot.
Several of the other activities which were described in our guide books are no longer available to local tourists, only to those who pay vast sums of money for a week long boat tour, but even without those places we had an enjoyable time and managed to see a lot. Truly an unforgetable experience.
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