The Galapagos Islands

Our journey to the Galapagos Islands started in Mindo, in the northern part of Ecuador. We needed to get to Guayaquil in the south to catch our 2 hour flight to the Galapagos. Since our flight was leaving early in the morning, we decided to leave the day before and get the 8 hour bus trip out of the way so we could have a decent rest and be fresh for our arrival in Darwin’s Land. Bus travel through this part of Ecuador is a little rough and we needed to make 3 transfers to get to our final destination. Fortunately the people of Ecuador are friendly and helpful and we had help finding our way.

The city of Guayaquil itself apparently doesn’t have much to offer outside of any typical big city in Latin America, so we really didn’t do much except rest before heading to the airport to begin this leg of our journey. The airport in Guayaquil is surprisingly clean and modern. I was expecting a hot and disorganized port with long queues and frustrated tourists. Instead we were greeted with a new climate controlled building and lots of places to eat and relax before boarding a flight, as well as no lines of sweating angry travellers.

For anyone travelling to the Galapagos, you first need to buy a pass that costs $20. The currency in Ecuador is US dollars. They enter your passport information and print out a card for you. Afterwards your bags are inspected to make sure that you aren’t carrying anything that might be damaging to the fragile ecosystems in Galapagos. They put a plastic tag on our bags after they’d been inspected. The airline won’t give you a boarding pass unless you already have that card and have a plastic tag on your bag.

There are two airports you can travel to on the islands, Isla Baltra and San Cristobal. We had our flights booked for Isla Baltra, a small island to the north of the much larger and more populated island of Santa Cruz. The airport here is the world’s first green airport, run on solar and wind power and using as much natural light and ventilation as possible. Once we’d landed on Isla Baltra, we had to queue to pay the $100 National Park entrance fee and then we could proceed to the baggage claim. There was more security here checking bags with dogs, but presumably rather than looking for drugs or guns, the dogs were searching for fruits or vegetables, or anything living that might cause havoc on the islands. We saw one bag get pulled from the pile and were wondering whether the unfortunate tourist would fess up or make a run for it.

Baltra Island is a fairly desolate place with the airport being the only significant landmark. As the bus made its way from the airport to the water taxi, we could see past marks of civilization that had since been erased from the landscape. Nature was beginning to reclaim the island, but it is a slow process. Most of the area resembled something of a post-apocalyptic movie set with a withered landscape of bush and cacti, a few abandoned buildings and loads of cracked and cratered foundations of buildings that had long ago been removed. I later discovered that during World War II the island was used as a United States Air Force base, which explained why so many buildings once dotted the landscape here.

We arrived at Puerto Ayora on the big island of Santa Cruz about an hour later. You need to take a ferry across from Baltra ($1) and then a bus to the town ($2). We had booked a room at the Hospedaje Germania http://www.hostalgermania.com/ for a reasonable rate of $40/night. Expect to pay a lot of money for accommodations and food should you ever visit the Galapagos Islands. Nothing is as cheap here as it is on the mainland. We spent the remainder of our day visiting Darwin Station. This is where Charles Darwin did most of his research while staying on the islands and today it still serves as a research area for the local wildlife.

The first impression of the Galapagos is the sheer abundance of wildlife. Birds of many varieties, seals and both land and marine iguanas were the first things we saw. It’s amazing how the animals live in such harmony with the local population and are not at all afraid of human beings. I couldn’t help but think of how you’d never see wildlife in such numbers this close to human habitation in Canada. Walking by a local fish market, we were greeted with the site of the fishermen cutting up their catch for the day and scores of pelicans and frigate birds lining up to eat the scraps tossed from the boats. On shore, the fish were being sold fresh off the boat and behind the line of women selling the fish sat a Galapagos Fur Seal, also presumably hoping to get a bit of easy food to eat.

Darwin Station http://www.darwinfoundation.org/ is a fascinating outdoor/indoor museum showcasing primarily the Giant Galapagos Tortoise. There is a trail you can walk that takes you past the lazy lumbering beasts as they relax and eat their days away. We also got an education on the islands and the research that goes on there. The Galapagos is a very eco-friendly place and the people and scientists there pride themselves on taking care of their environment and maintaining as little impact on nature as possible.

A few notes to those deciding to travel here: The sun is extremely strong. Cover up with clothes and a hat or wear a lot of sunblock. Any exposed light skin will be burnt in very little time. The islands are also hot, so expect temperatures to rarely drop below 30 Celsius during the day. The internet here is about the worst I’ve experienced in a long time. I’m not sure if that is due to a lack of infrastructure or not, but don’t count on it too much. Buying food can be cheap if you eat with the locals. $5 will buy you a drink, soup and a plate of meat, rice and salad if you eat in the right places. You’ll pay an average of $25/person if you eat where the tourists eat, and frankly the food is not a whole lot better. There are ferries that run between the islands, but they are not frequent and cost around $30 each way. Check this link for ferry times http://www.divethegalapagos.com/index.php/galapagos-speedboat-emetebe.html.

Our second day on the Galapagos was spent in Tortuga Bay. Tortuga Bay is widely considered one of the nicest beaches on the planet and with good reason. The beach is virtually empty of tourists and crowds and of course, because it’s a national park there are no restaurants, hotels or touts anywhere to be seen. Instead you are left with a long stretch of gorgeous sandy beach, beautiful water and loads of creatures wandering about, oblivious or seemingly uncaring of the humans gawking and taking pictures of them.

Accessing Tortuga Bay is not at all difficult. You can either take a water taxi, or if you are feeling energetic enough you can make the 2.5 km hike. We opted to do the walk and made our way to the trail entrance where we signed a log book and began our walk.

Along the way we were met by scores of birds, mostly Darwin’s finches which are everywhere in the Galapagos. There were also Lava Lizards scampering about the rocks next to the trail and didn’t mind posing for our photographs when we knelt down for a closer look. Arriving at the beach we were greeted by a teenage volunteer who told us about nesting sea turtles and how we needed to be careful not to step on any baby sea turtles that might be making their way to the sea.

After wandering the beach for awhile and snapping photos of the iguanas, Brown pelicans and Sally-Lightfoot Crabs, we arrived at a more secluded inlet adjacent to the beach where people were snorkeling and getting some sun. We sat down to have a bit of lunch that we’d packed and almost immediately we were surrounded by Darwin’s Finches. These little guys had no problems coming right up to us to try and grab whatever crumbs fell from our fingers. We laughed at the temerity of them and made bets on which bird would get closest. Of course we did not feed the birds, at least not on purpose. The park and the Islands in general are quite serious about giving the animals space and not feeding them, and we tried our best to stick to the rules.

The next morning we got up to take the 2 hour ferry ride to San Cristobal Island. The name of the ferry is Gaviota and the ride would turn out to be anything but smooth. After a slow start that had the Captain doing engine repairs and replacing fuel lines while we bobbed about in the seas, we were underway. A note to anyone travelling on these ferries, take motion sickness tablets. We took a couple of Dramamines and were grateful for it. Moaning passengers and a bright sun beating down on the rear of the boat made for a less than relaxing boat ride.

We arrived on San Cristobal to dozens of seals barking and playing in the water by the pier and sleeping on boats anchored in the bay. The town is much sleepier and has a more laid back feel to it than Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz. There is a nice bike and foot path that follows the shoreline and restaurants and dive shops are plentiful. We had booked a stay at Gosen Hostel https://es-la.facebook.com/gosen.galapagos/, managed by a friendly and helpful man named Angel. He was able to arrange a snorkel and scuba tour for us, and also rent us snorkeling equipment so we could do our own thing while on San Cristobal. 

The next morning we headed to La Loberia beach. La Loberia is famous for sea lions and turtles and isn’t too far out of town. We brought the ever needed sunblock and drinking water, as well as snorkeling equipment. Upon arriving at the beach we were immediately greeted by sea lions barking, sleeping and playing on the sand and in the water. A pup came up to us to check us out and rubbed up against our legs before heading back into the water.

Similar to Tortuga Bay, there are no hotels or any businesses or buildings of any kind near the beach, so we were surrounded by nature and only a few other tourists. The snorkeling here is absolutely beautiful. We saw sea turtles with sea lions swimming by and all kinds of fish, some of which I’ve listed below. We also spent part of the day swimming at Playa Carolla, a place even more inhabited by sea turtles, but much more difficult to access the water from the beach due to the sharp and numerous rocks lining the shore.

Our last day in the Galapagos was taking the scuba and snorkel tour that Angel had arranged for us. The outfit was Scuba Eden http://www.scubaedengalapagos.com/ and managed by a diver named Frankie. We wanted to go to Kicker Rock so that we could hopefully see the Hammerhead sharks that are known to swim there. The tour included a hot lunch, refreshments, all the necessary gear including two tanks for the divers, and transportation to and from Kicker Rock, as well as a stopover at a quiet and secluded beach only accessible by boat.

One thing to note are the horse flies at the beach. We forgot our bug repellent and it wasn’t long before the giant flesh eating beasts were buzzing around us looking for an easy meal. Anyone familiar with horse flies in North America know how horrible these things can be. Needless to say we spent most of our time in the water.

Finally, after a few wonderful days in the Galapagos it was time to leave and head further south. We woke up early to begin our long journey to Cusco, Peru where we will be doing a lot of trekking in the mountains. From the sea to the sky!

Wildlife seen: Galapagos Land Iguanas, Marine Iguanas, Darwin’s Finches, Brown Pelicans, Spotted Eagle Rays, Sea Lions, Giant Galapagos Tortoise, Lava Lizards, Sally Lightfoot Crabs, Waved Albatross, Galapagos Flycatcher, Carpenter Bee, American Yellow Warblers, Brown Noddy, Magnificent Frigate Bird, Manta Ray, Galapagos Fur Seals, Green Turtles, Hawksbill Turtles, Hammerhead Shark, Galapagos Shark, Blue Footed Booby, Red Breasted Frigate Bird, Masked Booby, King Angelfish, Streamer, Chocolate Chip Sea Star, Pencil Spined Sea Urchin, Ghost Crab, Black Striped Selema, Pacific Burrfish.