Galápagos, Hanging with Creatures of Another Time
Aaah the mythic Galápagos! This famous group of islands who got quite some attention through the work of Darwin. We spent 2 weeks around exploring every corners of the archipelago.
Money Money 💵
But, as you may know, Galápagos is not really a budget friendly destination. (Yes I like to start with hard points 😆). To give you an idea, prices are like in Paris… but yeah you’re still in Ecuador. Which makes a huge difference with the continent.
It does not mean that it’s impossible for a small budget. You can still find daily menus. You will pay $5 instead of $2.5 in mainland, but it’s also much better. There is a place called los kioscos where you eat great seafood at a reasonable price 👍.
Concerning the activities, it’s harder to save. The two main island (Santa Cruz and San Christobal) both have free stuff like snorkeling, beaches, etc. But to get to the real stuff you must take a tour. Here you have to bargain and there are tons of agencies. As always, it’s tour operators. So no matter the price you pay, you end up doing the same things. A day tour is around $150. Española island is more expensive at around $250.
Another way to travel is to cruise ⛵️. It’s even more the far west for the prices. After bargaining, you can get a cruise for ~$250 per day… It’s really expensive, at least all is included. The real advantage of a cruise is that the boat will get you to places you could not go otherwise.
Oh and believe it or not, flights are quite cheap! Easily found around $150 from Quito or Guayaquil. I was actually quite surprise to see that flying in Ecuador is quite expensive otherwise.
Let’s Cruise
Yes, we are weak and took the easy option to cruise and enjoy ourselves for 8 days 😝 — it costed a leg (or two) at $1800 per person 😭. By the way, nobody accept card. If they do it’s up to 20% fee 😱. So yes we had to pay by cash the cruise… Imagine us running at night from ATM to ATM (because of course you can only withdraw a few hundred per ATM) to get the money in time. I hate this sooooo much 🤬.
Anyway, we boarded a sail boat ⛵️, the Beagle, with 7 other passengers, a guide and 6 crews. Yes the Beagle, that was the name of Darwin’s boat!
Between one and 4 activities a day, it was not really a relaxing trip. We got to see incredible animals in their habitat, did some zodiac, snorkel and kayak. The landscape is also really different from one place to another.
Bachas
Our first stop allowed us to see a flamingo 🦩! He was a bit far but still. Otherwise, the site is famous for the wreckage of military boats on the beach. They were abandoned here after the war when the US got asked to leave.
Genovesa
The bird island. I’ve never seen so many birds in my life. And they were not afraid of us. Even with my 55 mm I had zero trouble taking pictures of the eyes 😉. It’s also the only place we had the chance to see all the species of boobies and owls. I loved the red footed boobies. The hype is more on the blue footed I know, but I prefer the red because their bill is blue making an interesting contrast.
We snorkeled as well and got our first swim with sea lions and seals!! It was incredible. They are so much more active in the water. Playing with us and the fishes.
Santiago
We saw as usual a few (thousand) birds and a cute american oystercatchers family. Another high moment was to see land iguanas. Really intriguing yellowish creatures 😃.
Wait. No, the real highlight was a swim with sea lions. This time, they were playing with a big school of tunas. It’s impressive. The school itself was worth the snorkeling. They were all moving together as one. Incredible. It was even enter with the sea lion playing with them. It’s a bit like a cat playing with mice.
Isabela
After a long navigation, we finally arrived in Isabela. It’s the biggest island a lot of things to see. By doing a cruise, we were able to explore the north part of the island — which is not accessible if you only do day trips.
We had a surprise at our arrival: hammerhead sharks! We just saw them from the boat, as our guide did not get that we wanted to snorkel with them 🤦♂️. Afterwards, we went for a dingy ride along the shore.
We got to a nesting place for cormorants and saw our first pingouins 🐧. That was great. But it got better… We snorkeled as well at this spot and could swim with them 🤩. This place had also an impressive concentration of marine turtles 🐢. The same day, we snorkeled again and saw tiger rays. Finally, we hiked to the Darwin lake. We got to see a very different vegetation with a lot of trees. Still, the environment is really hard and there is not much to eat for the animals.
The next day, we stopped on Fernandina. It’s basically just a volcano a few miles from Isabela. We got here to see nesting areas of marine iguanas. There was tons of them. Digging holes or fighting to steal someone’s else hole. We got to snorkel with them afterwards. It’s a bit scary! They look like water snakes, or dragons, using their tail to swim.
Back on Isabela, we did a land excursion to see the famous big tortoises 🐢!
Finally, we got to ride dingy in the mangrove at sunrise. At last we turned down the engine and used the paddles. It was great 👍 we could get close to the animals and listen to the nature. We saw some eagle and golden ray, turtle and pingouins!
The last two days where not really full. We just went to the tortoise nursery. Yes, also to the rim of the volcano, but the weather was terrible. I was quite annoyed that our guide did not change the itinerary 🤬. We walked 2 hours to see clouds. We could have snorkel or just go to the beach instead… By the way, the beach is really nicer in Isabela’s town compared to the other islands. It’s directly in town, long, lot of sand and quite some snorkeling rocks.
Live Aboard
The boat was nice 👍. A beautiful sail boat. Although the crew refused to sail and only used the motor… A bit sad 😔 especially since the engine was making quite some noise. Sleeping was hard for me! At least the cabins were quite comfy and spacious for a sail boat. Now the most important thing: fooood 😋. Amazing! Good quality, all the time different and enough to feed twice the boat.
We got lucky twice with dolphins 🐬. They made quite some show for us. Jumping and flipping super high. I’ve never saw that! Super cool.
Last but not least, friends! We had a really nice time with all the other guests 👉 friends. Hi everyone 👋.
The Guide
Hum 🤔. Long story short, it was crap. After 2–3 days, he had no more information for us. Appart from being able to name things, we did not get much. The briefings were a disaster all the time. He was always late at lunch and had some extra food as he stopped by the kitchen (just rude). He was also the worst snorkeling instructor I’ve seen. But to his defense, all the other groups were doing as bad (He had no clue about the topography nor the current. He was not looking at the group but chasing stuff to film. As for the safety, he did not have a ring and something to signal our position. The surface boat had no flag either and did not have any emergency kit.).
From a cruise in the Galápagos, I’m expecting way more information about the biology and the evolution. At this price, it’s outrageous 🤬. But hey, he even told us that we should not complain as we got a discount… I would be so much more annoying if I would have payed the “real” price.
One More Thing: Dive
If you dive, there are two options. Either day tours or a dive cruise. For 8 days/20 dives, it’s around $4000… These boat are the only one going to the islands of Wolf and Darwin. They are far up northwest and apparently you see whale sharks and big things alike.
In my opinion, they are insane 🤯! For $600 we did a 4 days/11 dives trip on the Great Barrier Reef. It’s like 4 times the price here!!! And I mean, I am not comparing this with something crapy. So no, we just dove once for $150 for two dives. Which is a common price in the world. It’s even a good deal because you get a lunch and tons of snacks 😋.
We did the famous *Gordon Rocks*. This spot is the place to go to see hammerhead sharks 🦈🤩. You also see rays, turtles and schools of tunas. How was it? Not as waou as I expected. The visibility was really bad (the dive master told us we had good conditions) at ~10 m, making it harder to spot things. The topography was also not special. At least we saw the sharks, a big school of ~30. But due to the visibility, we only had a few seconds before they all disappeared. Yes, you can say that I am spoiled with Polynesia or the Great Barrier Reef, but I’ve also dived in the Mediterranean Sea (Creta, Malta), and it’s better there. I am still happy to have seen a hammerhead shark. I’ve always been quite unlucky and never managed to see one in Polynesia (you need to go deeper at ~50 m because of the water temperature), here it’s at least guaranteed.
Plus the dive master was bad! We talked with some other divers from other clubs afterwards, and everybody was disappointed about the quality of the dive masters. The briefing is usually okay, but the problem is underwater. They are chasing randomly the animals. Going up and down, left and right, all the time. The dive profile is completely random and they go too fast without carrying about the current or splitting the group (If you’re a diver: some had just 10 bars after 40 minutes at around 15 m on average… I am doing the math for you, that’s more than 20 liters/min 😱. I am at 10 usually…). They are dangerous! I understand now why they ask people to have at least 25 dives. It’s because they cannot guide divers. So, go, but only if you’re autonomous…
Chilling
Between these activities, we had a few days to enjoy San Christobal and Santa Cruz. The towns are nice beach towns with lot of curios and restaurants. The coolest thing are the sea lions. There are everywhere in town! You have to be careful not to bump into one 🤣.
There are also a few beaches you can walk to. We did all of them 🤪. So on San Christobal: Baquerizo is far but great for turtles and iguanas. If you want sea lions, it’s on the other beaches. You can swim more in Punta Carola though. As for Santa Cruz: tortuga is great but soooo far. Also, for some reason I wanted to have some pirate them there 🤣. You know that I’m talking about *Pirate of the Caribbean*.
The Conservancy Joke
You’ve read it correct. In my opinion it’s a joke. As usual, here is my full unfiltered viewpoint. You don’t like it, move along 😘.
It all start with a $20 tax for… I have no clue. It’s like a VISA. You pay this before checking in your bags. Aaah maybe that’s the fee for extra check you have to go through with the checked bags 🐒. I’ve seen a tourist asked an officer if he could take a plastic bottle with him. The officer said: “of course”. Behind them was a sign forbidding it… So after this amazing checking, your bag is sealed with a fancy thing (someone did a great lobbying here). You’re good to fly to the Galápagos.
At your arrival, there is a $100 tribute (yes, yes, no joke it’s called like that). As always, only cash, no comment 🧐. This tribute is supposed to help the park conservancy. Why not? If it’s really used for that. Let’s see what they do, because it’s quite a lot of money… $20 + $100, nice 👍
At the immigration, we answered yes to 2 questions out of 3. Yes we have food and yes camping/hiking gear. The officer read it, and waved us away. We’re good without check or saying a word 😱. It’s simply the worst immigration control ever.
That’s not it. When you take a boat to change islands. There is a check. Good they use the money here as well. 🤣 you fool. When they see big backpacks like ours, they just ask you if you have anything. And they give you the amazing seal here again (amazing lobbyists). We’ve done the checks a few times and we never saw any big bag being really checked 👎.
About the boats. First of all, everyone has a thermal engine. Check out New Zealand and how things are done in the Milford Sound. But the tea problem is the number of ships. There are around 2–3 times more boat than necessary. Why? Because when you arrive from one island to the other with a boat, the boat cannot dock. Wait, what? Yes, they have to wait for 1–2 taxiboat to do the last 50 m. Yes, it’s great. And you have to pay an extra $0.5 for that. Everyone is feeding on you, it’s great 😃.
Is there something good? Yes, the park is a no go zone. That’s the best conservancy you could do. Appart from around the town, you must have a guide with you. And you can only go to designated area. There is always a track that you must follow 👌. Does this cost millions of dollars per year… 🤷♂️.
Last but not least, the guides. To become a guide, there is a 3 months training. And here you go… With this, you can conduce land excursions anywhere and even snorkel. Amazing. And so unrealistic. It’s just enough to give them a notion about everything, that’s it. But this would not actually be an issue if there was some kind of selection open to anyone. You would have real wildlife experts, expert divers and biologist applying. Why is it not the case? Because you must be a native of the Galápagos to be allowed to stay there more than 2 months per year. It’s even worse. To have this status, you must be born before 1992. This thing result in just a few people being allowed to be there. Now you got the why about the skyrocketing prices and the quality of the service… 🤯. In the end, people working here are more passionate about money than wildlife. I could really see people how people behaved differently there. Forget consideration and hard working as in mainland. Nice conservancy 👎.
Mixed Feelings
A last stop at the beach before taking our flight back. The Galápagos Islands are surprising. You get to see up close strange animals in the wild. The environment is hard not to say unfriendly. Volcanoes are still actives, it’s hot and there is not much of a shadow. It’s an incredible place to understand the evolution as you get to see it directly.
But it’s a very annoying place as well. Visitors are seen as a walking wallet. The quality of what you’re paying for is bad, and the conservancy is not as it could be if people were doing their job. I guess you could feel my annoyance reading this 😝.
So, yes for the animals. No for all the rest.
