Galapagos, Ecuador

“Darwin did not change the islands, but only people’s opinion of them. That was how important mere opinions used to be back in the era of great big brains...Only one English word adequately describes his transformation of the islands from worthless to priceless: magical."

- Kurt Vonnegut, Galapagos (1985)

Pretty much right after we settled on traveling through South America we decided that we really wanted to go the Galapagos. Through a lot of research and speaking to a few friends who went, the verdict was to do a multi-day cruise in order to see the most islands and diversity of wildlife. Most of the cruise companies have offices in Quito and offer very good last minute deals. Luckily, we had plenty of time in Ecuador and Quito, which allowed us to book a cruise for 8 days for a rate that we could afford. 

Arriving to the Galapagos feels similar to The Big Island of Hawaii

We arrived to the Galapagos 2 days before the boat left and right from exiting the plane we realized we were going to see lots of wildlife. Walking onto the tarmac we saw a very large land iguana scurrying about. And then, after taking a short bus>ferry>longer bus to our hostel in Puerto Ayora (the largest 'city' in Galapagos~20,000 people) we walked from the bus station to the hostel and saw a giant land tortoise just in someones front lawn (grass not included)!

Giant Land Tortoise on the side of the road (first hour in The Galapagos)

On the weekend before the cruise, we went to the beach at Tortuga Bay and saw one tortoise as we were walking to the beach, tons of marine iguanas at the first beach (that you can't swim in) and numerous birds all before reaching a stunning beach we could swim and cool off in!

Path to Tortuga Bay, posing in front of one of the Opuntia cacti

The seemingly endless white sand beach at Tortuga Bay

Sand patterns at Tortuga Bay

The following day we met up with the other 11 passengers of the boat we took (a small catamaran). We were both a bit nervous about how we would handle sleeping on the boat and getting sea sick (mostly A was very nervous because as a kid she had terrible motion sickness) but luckily it was pretty fine with only a few fleeting touch and go moments on the first evening. 

Deck of our catamaran

This cruise was definitely the highlight so far of our trip, the Islands are like no other and we were spoiled rotten with all the wildlife we saw! We saw heaps of birds- finches, pelicans, boobies (red footed, blue footed, nazca), frigate birds w/ inflated red balloons to attract a mate, an owl, penguins, flamingos and many more! And it was not just birds, we saw lava lizards, marine iguanas (on land and while snorkeling), land iguanas, different types of giant land tortoises, sea lions and their pups, sea turtles, and infinite fish while snorkeling including multiple sharks!

A few highlights from the trip - we saved a sea turtle (video to come!) on the beach who our guide said might not survive because it was too far from the water and the tide was moving out so he let us both pick up the turtle and move it closer to the water to save it. Also, on our first snorkel trip we swam with a family of very large sea turtles (and we saw from our boat two sea turtles mating). But the experience most like Planet Earth was during one snorkel session, there was a giant school of sardines and we watched penguins (about 15) swoop in and separate off a group of the sardines and bringing them closer to the surface. Once the fish were closer to the surface, the penguins swooped in to eat the sardines while other sea birds dive-bombed down to get those on the top. And finally, 3 sharks came to get in on the action as well with the largest shark being about 7 ft long. Once there were 3 sharks, A swam to safety of the boat while Z stayed in longer to watch. It was absolutely magnificent!

Sadly, we don't have pictures from under water but fellow travelers on our boat had a water camera (and much nicer actual camera) and their post can be found here. They are a couple from Germany who retired and have an overland truck. South America is their first stop of a 5-6 year round the world tour! Definitely gave us some food for thought on different ways to travel...

And, to see more of our photos that we took - click here!