Las Bachas, Santa Cruz

Las Bachas at a glance

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   Santa Cruz — Las Bachas

   Las Bachas is a white-sand beach on the northern coast of Santa Cruz, across the channel from Baltra. Behind it lies a brackish lagoon where flamingos feed, and from around December green turtles nest on the sand. It is visited by wet landing, usually paired with North Seymour.

How you get there

On a cruise

Very common as a first or last stop because of how close it is to Baltra airport. Usually the same day as North Seymour.

Day trip

Runs from the north side of Santa Cruz, not from Puerto Ayora — you cross the island by road first, which is why it is less common than it looks.

It sits on Santa Cruz, so how you reach the island decides how you reach this.

What you actually see

The beach and the nesting tracks

Soft white sand with turtle tracks running up it in the warm season — wide parallel lines like something was dragged. That is exactly what happened.

The flamingo lagoon

A shallow brackish pool a short walk behind the dunes. Numbers vary and some days there are none, but when they are there they are close.

The barge wreckage

Rusted iron in the sand at one end, left from the American base on Baltra. Most groups walk past it without being told what it is.

What goes wrong

We run these trips, so we know what people complain about afterwards. Better to read it here than find out on the day.

Walking on the nests

In nesting season the sand above the tide line holds eggs. Guides route the group along the wet sand for that reason, and it matters.

The flamingos are not always there

The lagoon dries and fills. No operator can promise a flamingo, whatever the itinerary says.

Sandflies at dusk

Behind the dunes they are real. Repellent if you are there late in the day.

Who this is not for

Saying this costs us bookings and saves the trip. If any of these is you, tell us and we will build the day differently.

• Anyone who cannot manage a wet landing from a dinghy.
• Visitors wanting dramatic scenery — this is a gentle beach stop, often the softest day of an itinerary.
• People who need a guarantee of flamingos.

What lives here

• American flamingo — In the lagoon behind the beach, when there is water in it.
• Green sea turtle — Nesting on this beach from around December.
• Sally Lightfoot crab — On the rocks at both ends.
• Whimbrel and other shorebirds — Working the lagoon edge.

Nearby

Every visitor site we have written up → · Santa Cruz, the whole island →