What can we say? We both agree that visiting the Galápagos Islands was our favorite part of this whole trip. That is saying a lot. Overall it was just so incredibly abundant with beautiful landscapes, curious wildlife, and lots of activities to choose from. But let’s back up.
It had been a long time dream of Laura’s to visit the Galápagos Islands. See, Laura has been obsessed with all things turtle since forever. When she was a wee lass, she dreamt of seeing the giant tortoises with their wrinkly skin and insanely long necks. She doesn’t really remember how she found out about the Galápagos, but she did write a story in the third or fourth grade that was based in an archipelago very similar to the Galápagos, and so she took lots of inspiration from the place even at a young age. And Javi had always been intrigued by the ecological and historical significance of the Galápagos, which was of course where Darwin began developing his theory of evolution. So, it was inevitable that if we were in Ecuador we would have to make the trip.
At first it seemed daunting to plan a trip there. The initial research was enough to scare anyone off, with ads and websites screaming at us that we needed to spend thousands of dollars on an 8-day luxury boat trip or we wouldn’t be able to “really see” the islands. As we peeled away those layers of misinformation, we realized we could easily just buy a flight from mainland Ecuador and figure it out as we went along. We didn’t even have to set foot on a boat if we didn’t want to. We decided on doing 11 days and flying in to the island of San Cristobal because, based on our research, there was a lot to do on the island that didn’t require a lot of money. Santa Cruz island was the other option for flying into, but our research told us it was a bit more crowded and had fewer hikes. So we thought we would spend most of the time on San Cristobal and then take a round trip boat ferry to Santa Cruz for a few days. It turned out that either island would have been fine to fly into, as they both had lots of fun (free or fancy) stuff to do.
Our good friend Josh also decided to join us for about 8 days of the trip since he was already doing his own vagabonding in South America. Before he arrived, we found a nice little private room at a hostel and spent the first few days on our own walking around the fairly populated town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (the capital of the Galápagos) and taking it all in. There are several beaches in town and it has a special kind of island vibe. Literally everywhere you go there is some kind of wildlife, mostly sea lions, birds, and marine iguanas, just walking or flying around being themselves. Note to self: sea lions are extremely entertaining. There are also nice hikes outside of town and an interpretive center where we spent some time learning about the Galápagos’ super intriguing history (full of colonization, sordid love affairs, and prison inmates).
One day we took a day trip to the San Cristobal highlands to check out some lava caves, remote beaches, and a semi-captive breeding facility for giant tortoises. It was cool to see them in their natural habitat, albeit in an enclosed space. But you couldn’t tell it was enclosed, and seeing the little baby tortoises in the breeding area was adorable. From what we understand, there are fewer tortoises in the wild on San Cristobal than other islands, but they do exist. We wanted a guarantee so we went to the facility.
Another day we watched marine iguanas swimming off of Punta Carola and went snorkeling in Tijeretas Bay, where there were so many sea turtles we lost count and the sea lions got right up in our faces. It was magical. And of course we finished off our days with cocktails or beer at one of the (surprisingly) many boardwalk bars and restaurants in the area.
Josh arrived a few days in and the next day we did a big diving trip to Kicker Rock, a spot that is famous for sharks and other wildlife. It delivered. It was the most beautiful day and we saw huge hammerheads, black tipped sharks, rays, sea turtles, tons of amazing fish, and other neat stuff. We were so thankful that we had done the scuba certification course back on the mainland. This was our first post-course dive, and if we thought we were ruined by the huge manta ray on our course dive, then we don’t even know what to think about our time at Kicker Rock. We have been so lucky in just four dives.
The day after our dive at Kicker Rock we took a two-hour ferry boat to Santa Cruz island. To say “ferry” is a massive overstatement. It is a small boat that fits maybe 20-25 people and it zips across a very rough ocean. Several people got sick on both trips we took; it was definitely a difficult ride and probably the only negative part of the trip. But it was necessary to get to Santa Cruz unless we wanted to pay a lot of money to fly (it was $35 per boat ride).
Puerto Baquerizo Moreno in San Cristobal was definitely a big town (considering the remoteness of the islands) with restaurants, hotels, bars, etc. But it was generally pretty relaxed and didn’t feel overrun with tourists. And when we got out of town to the highlands it was very quiet. Puerto Ayora in Santa Cruz was also a big town with way more tourists both in town and at the attractions outside of town. But it didn’t bother us, we had a great time! We even heard some live music. And the town was actually great for finding activities. If someone wants to get the best last minute deals for liveaboard experiences or even day trips, Puerto Ayora is probably the better option to fly into. But we had a laid back approach to the whole trip, so we were glad we spent more time on San Cristobal.
One day in Santa Cruz we did a full day snorkeling trip to the Daphne Islands, where we swam with a ton of black-tipped sharks, sea lions, sea turtles, and of course fish. And we saw some amazing birds including the infamous blue footed boobies. Another day in Santa Cruz we caught a ride to Tortuga Bay, which was absolutely breathtaking. Javi and Josh waded out and did some snorkeling and Laura stayed onshore and watched cute baby sharks and rays gliding along the shallow surf. Again, magic. We also visited an area in the highlands full of HUGE tortoises, bigger than on San Cristobal. This was definitely a highlight of the whole trip.
Josh pondered staying on the islands and grabbing a last minute deal for a diving liveaboard, but decided against it in the end. It is true that there are so many other islands in the archipelago that you can’t see unless you take a liveaboard. There are restrictions on tourists just boating out on their own to these places, and liveaboards have specific schedules so officials can better manage the sustainability of the tourism industry. But a liveaboard just wasn’t in the cards for us. At a minimum, we’d be paying $4k -$5k together for only a few days, let alone a longer 5 or 8 day trip. We were glad we did it the way we did. We had more freedom to decide our own schedule and could take as many day trips as we wanted. We hope in the future we can go back and do a diving liveboard to visit the more remote islands.
Or we could even go back and fly into Santa Cruz and spend all our time on the huge Isabella island, which is way less populated and still accessible to non-liveaboard folks. We didn’t realize when we were planning that Isabella was such a great option, but you can only access it by ferry boat from Santa Cruz, not San Cristobal. So we simply didn’t have enough time this round.
We will definitely be back, though. The Galápagos was unimaginably beautiful and unexpected yet everything we wanted. It is so surreal being surrounded by such natural abundance. And we got to share it with a dear friend we hadn’t seen in far too long, so it was extra special catching-up time. We felt so much gratitude the whole time, and had a ton of fun enjoying nature and laughing and watching funny animals. After saying goodbye to Josh, we set off for our last stop on this crazy whirlwind: MEXICO!
Galapagos
