Dan, Sylvie and Felix Blog: The day long bike ride that cost us a year

So, we decided, even though we hadn't biked in over 6 months and the most exercise we have had recently involves walking to ice cream shops and the occasional stroll here and there, that we would rent some bikes and explore the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos. Our first thought was to bike to the of side of the island… the island didn't look that big… stop at caves along the way, have a swim at the beach then bike to a turtle sanctuary on the other side of the island. Piece of cake. We wanted the exercise.

We set off and experienced our first uphill just outside of town. I was instantly 'ompa loompa' red in the face but loving the burn. Many hills and liters of sweat later, we arrived at the lava caves. Not too bad. We are starting to feel the burn, no longer loving it, but still feels goodish. The caves were interesting but we had lots of sights to see. We walked through, ate some bananas, then were off! We saw a sign pointing uphill for what looked like a place the bike rental guy recommended to us (which was written ineligibly on our map). Looked about right. Vamanos.

This turn in the road is exactly the point where the burn did not feel good anymore. It was actually starting to really hurt. The road taunted us with all its upwards slants. But the bike rental man recommended this place to us- we must endure. It will be worth it. After what felt like an eternity and we entirely drenched with sweat, we arrived at the end of the road. The name on the sign did not look like the name written on our map. Hmph. We took a wrong very long turn. Luckily we ended up at a reserve and it appears as though we biked up to on the highest peaks on the island. It was just another steep road to the viewpoint- can't stop now. The view at the top was worth our effort so far. We ate lunch and freshly picked guava at the lookout, it was beautiful. And we had that long downhill road to look forward to. By this point we were beat. So of course the only thing to do was take a nice break then point our bikes to the Eastern side of the island- beach!

The next hour or so ride to the beach had its ups and downs- mentally and physically. At this point the burn ripping our petite muscles apart and giving us very tender bottoms. But we were there! A beautiful remote beach we had all to ourselves. I have never enjoyed a swim as much as I did that day. I didn't want to leave the beach- but mainly, I didn't want to bike back! At this point we had biked 5 hours and most of that was uphill. But had more to see- to the turtle sanctuary on the other side of the island.

Luckily, we hailed a taxi after about 20 minutes on our bikes and for a steep fee (which was well worth it), he dropped us and our bikes off at the turtle sanctuary. In our limited Spanish, we announce to the unenthusiastic woman working there: " we would like turtles". So she directs to go a certain way, which leads us to another lava cave and she mentions turtles and a lagoon. We go in assuming the turtles are somewhere on the other side near a lagoon. We get to the other side, no turtles. No lagoon. We walk back to the place barely finding our way in the maze of trails and the woman draws us a map which she doesn't give us. Great. We are set. We decide, since we are running our of daylight hours, to take the bikes down. So we set off downhill towards the lagoon. We find a small lagoony looking thing. No turtles. Keep going downhill. 1 Turtle! Laying in the mud. At the same time, a tour bus passes us coming from further below the hill. Excellent- there must be a road down there. We set off on the rocky dirt path looking for that road. Down we go. And down. And down. No road. The thrill of being able to move with pedaling is overweighing our logical thoughts- it must be around the next turn, or the next or the one after that.

It will be dark in about 1 hour. We, with heads hung low, decide to turn back and endure the painful ride uphill. It was brutal. We were both silent the entire way up. There was just enough light left to see that the turtle we saw earlier was still there. Lucky turtle. I wanted to be sleeping in the mud right then.

We make it to the road just as it is getting dark. The bike store closes in an hour and a half. It starts to rain, than it pours. We bike as fast as we can in the dark, with no streetlights and only a little tiny flashlight each. Mine is on the back of my bag so cars can see us which means- I can't see anything! The most terrifying part was when we passed a pack of dogs who started barking and jumping for our ankles in the dark. Those were mean dogs.

We, somehow, managed to make it back 10 minutes late ridiculously sore, tired, soaking wet, dirty and hungry. What a ride.