Cruising Through the Galapagos Islands

Y’all, I have been dying to share a full blog post about my recent trip to the Galapagos Islands with y’all for some time now. It’s a trip that had been booked for almost 2 years, almost got cancelled due to COVID, but was 16799% worth it. It took me a long time to finish this post due to me taking SO many pictures (emphasis on the many) but I have so much to share with y’all, I think I’ll have to break it into multiple parts (sorry for that in advance). I’ll share lots of my favorite pictures and experiences, but also what company we used, how we liked it, recommendations, etc. in case you are reading this to glean some advice for your own trip!

I took this trip with my mom who is a former middle school science teacher. She was equally obsessed with the Galapagos as I am because she had taught about the Galapagos for years and wanted to see the place she taught about in person. The Galapagos has been at the top of my bucket list since I took AP Biology as a junior in high school. I had the BEST biology teacher who taught us about the Galapagos Islands when we got to the topic of natural selection. I was instantly fascinated with the topic, when she showed us a picture of the blue footed booby and how it was her favorite animal, I was sold LOL

The travel company we used:

We knew from the beginning that we wanted to take a Galapagos cruise– the alternative being staying in a hotel in Santa Cruz in the Galapagos and then taking day trips to different islands. When we originally booked this trip, we did so with Tauck which we actually added on an extension to in order to go to Machu Picchu, Peru. Unfortunately, due to especially bad COVID conditions in Peru, Tauck cancelled our entire trip about a month before we were set to leave. Because we were both vaccinated for COVID and future trips were selling out everywhere, we scrambled a bit and booked a Western Galapagos Cruise through Alexander and Roberts about a month before we were set to leave which was a little ~*~stressful~*~

Alexander and Roberts ended up being absolutely wonderful though. Because we went during COVID times, they coordinated everything for us for COVID tests which was one of the most stressful things. They also hooked us up with such a great tour guide in Quito who was the sweetest and made us feel super safe.

We did so much and took so many pictures from our trip to the Galapagos Islands, that I couldn’t cram the stuff from Quito in here too! It would have been TOO LONG! If you haven’t already, you can read part 1 to hear about Quito, Ecuador.

Baltra and North Seymour Island (Day 1)

With negative COVID tests in hand, we woke up at 4 am to leave for the airport to make our flight to Baltra. Before you go, your luggage has to get cleared to make sure you are not bringing any plants, animals, fresh fruits, etc. to the islands.

It was only a few hours from Quito and once we landed, we went into the smallest airport ever to get rechecked to ensure we were not bringing anything invasive into the Galapagos and then we met the crew of the yacht, “La Pinta”. We checked in with them, took a quick 5 minute bus ride to the docks which were covered in lazy sea lions. We met the other people who would be on La Pinta with us and jumped on a dinghy boat to take us to the boat.

The yacht, La Pinta, is relatively big. It’s only about 24 cabins and had a dining room, an outdoor dining area, small gym, big lounge area, and library. One of the things I loved about our experience with La Pinta is that it felt like they never wanted to waste our time and therefore, they worked to cram in as much activity as possible. Once we got on the boat they immediately started sailing. They fed us lunch, did the safety spiel, and before we knew it, we were departing off the boat onto North Seymour Island for our first hike of the trip. Right off the bat, we were seeing blue footed boobies, iguanas, frigate birds, and SO MANY sea lions!

We got to spend a little under a couple hours there before we got back on the boat to see the sunset during happy hour.

Another thing I liked about La Pinta was every night, they had us meet in the library where they would do a presentation on what to expect the next day like: where we were going, what type of landing we would have (dry or wet landing), what things we needed to bring, what animals we expected to see there, etc. So after dinner, we got to chat with our naturalist guide as a group about those things.

Punta Vicente Roca, Isabela & Punta Espinoza, Fernadina (Day 2)

Every day on La Pinta consisted of a morning stop and an afternoon stop. For day 2 on La Pinta, we started at Punta Vicente Roca on Isabela island. We started off the morning enjoying the incredible views with our coffee and breakfast. The views were so surreal that I literally cried (LOL) because it felt so unreal that I had finally made it to the Galapagos.

That morning, we got on a dinghy for a coastal expedition of Punta Viente.

After that, we got back on the boat briefly, got into our wet suits and grabbed our snorkeling equipment (supplied by La Pinta I want to add) and went back to the island to snorkel. We also had the option to do a glass bottom boat if snorkeling isn’t your cup of tea.

We saw lots of turtles, some more blue footed boobies, a couple of Galapagos penguins, and some incredible fish. One of the pros of going in March is that the water is much calmer than some other times of the year and results in better clarity for snorkeling.

The absolute best part of this day was when we were snorkeling, my mom saw a flightless cormorant about 15 feet away, it came right up to her, and then playfully bit her on the arm! My mom was videotaping the bird at the time it came up to her, so it resulted in the funniest video ever 🙂

After snorkeling, we got back on the boat to eat some lunch while La Pinta took off to sail us to our next location in Fernadina. We had just enough time to eat, quick shower, and change before we got on a dinghy to take us to Punta Espinoza. It was a dry landing, but the landing to get to this area was COVERED in sea iguanas. Like a lot of animals on the Galapagos, they are super unbothered by humans and just chill on the beach so you kind of just have to tiptoe around them.

This island was covered in black lava rock and we saw lots of iguanas and more sea lions.

Urbina Bay, Isabela & Tagus Cove, Isabela (Day 3)

Per usual, we started our first stop of the day early after breakfast. We knew this morning was going to consist of a “wet landing” so I wore my handy Chacos, which was fine since the walking trail was not rigorous and very flat. After the walk, we knew we were going to hang out on the beach and snorkel a bit, so we wore our bathing suits under our clothes and were able to bring our snorkel equipment and towels and leave it on the beach while we walked.

This island had SO MANY tortoises. I know they call them giant tortoises for a reason, but seeing them in person, I was shocked as to how big they actually were.

After we walked the loop of the park, we ended up back on the beach where we put on our wet suits and swam off the shore to snorkel. To be quite honest, this wasn’t my favorite snorkeling– the water was choppier and therefore the visibility was not as great, but we were able to see some more sea turtles and fish.

After jumping back on the boat for lunch and sailing to Tagus Cove, they gave us some options for activities. We ended up kayaking and getting to see lots of Galapagos penguins and then going on a coastal exploration in a dinghy. The coastal exploration at Tagus Cove was one of our favorite ones because we go to see lots of baby sea lions, Galapagos penguins, blue footed boobies, and more!

Red Beach, Rabida & Dragon Hill, Santa Cruz (Day 4)

Similar to the situation at Urbina Bay, we had another wet landing, followed by a hike, and then snorkeling off the beach. We were also given the opportunity to sign up to paddle board or kayak instead of snorkel, but this was such a good snorkeling spot, that I’m so glad we just stuck to that!

Rabida was overall probably my favorite place we stopped at. Every island in the Galapagos looks so different– that’s obviously one of the interesting, unique things about the Galapagos, but Rabida is so strikingly different that I found it to be so interesting. It’s red everywhere and is fairly barren so it has the feeling of being on Mars. It has the weirdest looking cacti that start to look more trees because they have evolved to grow taller so that tortoises cannot eat them.

The snorkeling here was so cool. The water visibility was unreal and there was plenty of sea lions that came up to us, schools of fish, and even a ray! A couple of people from our group were actually chilling in some shallow water and a sea lion came right up to them and started try to play with them!

After a quick sail, we disembarked for a short walk around Dragon Hill. We hoped to see some Flamingos, but came up unlucky. However, we still had the opportunity to learn a lot about the plants and iguanas at Dragon Hill. PS. I cannot emphasize enough how badly you need bug spray here lol

Charles Darwin Research Station, Santa Cruz & Giant Tortoise Reserve, Santa Cruz (Day 5)

This was a day I was really excited about because we got to see a bit of the city of Santa Cruz. On our way to the Charles Darwin Research Station, we stopped at the Mirador Tunnel which is an inactive volcanic tunnel and got to walk through.

We then made our way to the research station where they study giant tortoises (talk about a dream job), capture eggs to incubate for eventual release, and teach about conservation of the islands.

It was really interesting learning about how they are working to try and preserve the wildlife of the islands– specifically the giant tortoises because of how important they are for vegetation on the islands.

After jumping back on the boat briefly for lunch, we headed back out to El Manzanillo Ranch which is in the highlands of Santa Cruz. Tortoises generally live in the highlands so going to this ranch was getting to see the tortoises in a different habitat than we had previously.

We all wore lots of bug spray here and they supplied us with rubber boats because of how muddy the area is. We saw lots of tortoises– even saw some mating!

Post Office Bay, Punta Comorant, & Champion Islet, Floreana (Day 6)

This was the last full day on La Pinta and although it was a PACKED day, it was the BEST day. It started off in Post Office Bay, Floreana.

Post Office Bay

The tradition of post office bay is that long ago, whalers– who would be at sea for years–would stop in the Galapagos for food and water. Because communication was an issue then, they would leave letters at a designated area in Floreana– now called Post Office Bay. Other ships would stop there on their way home, and they would pick up all the letters destined for that place and hand deliver them. Not the most efficient delivery system, but I guess there were limited options!

My mom and I each wrote a post card and left it in the box. We all sorted through the letters in the box, and I managed to find one that is super close by my in-laws, who I am going to visiting soon, so I am going to hand deliver it then!

We then went on a coastal exploration around Post Office Bay & Mirador de la Baronesa.

Then immediately had a short hike to Baroness viewpoint. This was the best views the entire trip. Incredible.

We got the chance to kayak one last time around this area which was gorgeous.

Champion Islet

After a sail to Champion Islet, we jumped into our wet suits one last time for the best snorkeling of the trip. The area we got to explore is actually an official diving spot, so the reefs were incredible. It is also home to a huge sea lion colony, so we constantly had sea lions in our personal space here (no complaints!).

I could have snorkeled here for hours if they let me! There was lots of fish, turtles, and obviously sea lions.

Punta Comorant

For our last exploration of the Galapagos, we took a dinghy to Punta Comorant. It was a wet landing, but a very easy walk.

We walked along the beach where we saw some sea turtles and some shark fins 🙂

We then walked over to a very muddy area where we got to see some flamingos from a distance!

Goodbye Galapagos, Hello Guayaquil

The boat had to kick us all off relatively early so they could clean/disinfect to prepare for the next group to be boarding that afternoon, so they sent us to the airport by 9 or 10 am. Luckily, there was lots of touristy stands in the Baltra airport, so we spent a long time walking around shopping (since we weren’t allowed to shop in Santa Cruz due to COVID) before our flight.

La Pinta also set everyone up that they could hang out in the VIP lounge of the airport for free since some people had late afternoon nights. This was super nice because it was the first time in a week that I had consistent Wi-Fi lol

Our flight from Baltra to Guayaquil didn’t land until about 2:45 pm, but once we landed, we met another Alexander and Roberts tour guide who drove us to our hotel, told us a little bit about the town, and dropped us off. I actually really loved the vibe of Guayaquil– almost more so than I liked the vibe of Quito. But I especially LOVED our hotel, Hotel del Parque. It was incredibly nice and was actually an old hospice house that they turned into a boutique hotel… which is a little creepy and I definitely think it was probably haunted, but I still loved it.

Because our flight the next morning boarded at 4:45 am, we didn’t do much in Guayaquil but I would have loved to have an extra day to explore it! Alexander and Roberts had arranged for someone to meet us in the lobby when we landed to do a rapid COVID test so we could return to the US, so we got that over with and tried to relax for the first time all week 🙂

My mom was craving some American food so she literally made me walk 10 minutes down the road with her to a Chili’s hahahahahahaha HOWEVER, if you find yourself in Guayaquil, the hotel restaurant was so gorgeous, highly rated, and on the river, so although I didn’t eat there, I recommend you go try it. We walked down to it just so we could enjoy the views of the river.

Hotel del Parque is actually almost inside of the Guayaquil Historical Park where they have some beautiful gardens and animals, so we walked through that on our way back from dinner.

And just like that, we were on our way home! This trip was once in a lifetime for me, and I will truly never forget it. If you love traveling for more of an adventurous and nature focused trip, there is absolutely no where on Earth like the Galapagos.

 

If you have any questions about our trip and want recommendations, be sure to comment below! Or if you have gone and have suggestions for others planning a trip, drop those recommendations below!