Galapagos Islands
After Quito, our next destination was Galapagos Islands. We decided to cover two islands — Santa Cruz and Isabela. Flight from Quito to Galapagos takes around 3.5 hours. There are a large number of tourist companies with cruises that take you around all the islands in 5–10 days. We didn’t go on a cruise as we get seasick very easily plus it was on the higher side of our budget. Lots of last minute deals are available in the town of Puerto Ayora which are much cheaper than online or agencies selling in Quito. We preferred to explore the island on our own rather than taking any cruise.
Baltra is the main airport in Galapagos — we landed at around 3 pm. All tourists need to go through immigration and pay $100 mandatory fees which include access to Galapagos National Park. The vegetation outside the airport was quite barren, arid and full of cactus plants. After we got out of the airport, we boarded a bus for Santa Cruz Island. It was a 15 min ride then we took a ferry to cross Itabaca channel to reach Santa Cruz Island. Turquoise colored water and greenery around Itabaca channel were amazing. Puerto Ayora is a major town of Santa Cruz which is at the exact opposite side of the island where the ferry drops you from the airport. Next, we took another bus to Puerto Ayora which charged around $2 and took 40 minutes to reach the town.
After we got off the bus, we searched for our hostel which we had pre-booked from Quito. We stayed at Hostel Espana, and it was not a good experience. The staff didn’t care plus their super slow wifi was only in the central lobby area. We got a room on the 4th floor, so it was less noisy but a long stair walk. We just felt that we paid a high price for the very basic services they provided.
Santa Cruz island is the central tourist hub of Galapagos because of its proximity to Baltra airport which makes everything expensive here. We preferred to shop from the big superstore near the dock which was more reasonable price-wise. There are umpteen number of restaurants on Charles Darwin avenue with a lot of options to eat. We ate a lot of pizzas over there — we loved the restaurant named Pizzas (a very convenient name) on the main street.
We started our next day by visiting Charles Darwin center. Most of the shops in the area were closed and the place appeared to be run down. However, we did see a land Iguana and some tortoises. On our way back, we saw a few marine iguanas outside main entrance gate. We passed through the fish market where we saw some birds and seals waiting for the fresh fish. It was amazing to see how comfortable these animals were around human beings.
Next day, we again went to see Charles Darwin center. We took more pictures there and then headed for Tortuga Bay. In order to go to Tortuga beach, you have to first signup at the gate and then hike for about 1.5 miles. Here we saw a lot of marine iguanas basking in the beautiful white sand beach. The beach itself is really pretty. After soaking in the sun for a few hours with the Iguanas, we headed back to our hostel. A light drizzle on our way back was a respite from the hot sun.
Next, we went to see Lava Tunnels and El Chato Reserve — this place houses lots of giant tortoises. Here we saw hundreds of tortoise in their natural habitat immersing themselves in water and mud. Tortoises are pretty shy creatures and they hiss like a snake if you try to come too close as a preventive measure.
Next morning we left for Isabela Island. It was a rough 2-hour ferry ride — we felt like we were on a roller coaster which made us nauseous. As a result, we spent the rest of our day sleeping in the hostel. Here we stayed in Hostel Insula which was clean and had very helpful staff. Isabela is a beautiful island that is less inhabited than Santa Cruz. Most places here serve delicious seafood, coffee, and rice with chicken and vegetables. Isabela Island is full of marine iguanas, crabs, blue-footed boobies, seals, and penguins.
Next day we decided to visit Las Tintoreras — it’s an islet about 30 min boat ride from Isabela. We did a small tour where they took us to see sharks as well as more marine iguanas. We saw penguins and blue-footed boobies along the way plus lots of crabs.
After seeing Tintoreras, we headed for snorkeling. I did some snorkeling but later returned to my boat because I got scared by a stingray swimming very close to me. There were lots of turtles and black fishes in the water — Saurabh and I did some snorkeling near the shore. It was fun! The water around the beach had penguins as well as sea lions. You can look under the water and see them moving with you. The sea lions are very calm and float next to you.
The next day we decided to hike Volcano Negra and Chico. It was fantastic, but strenuous hike — the vegetation around volcano area, changed fast. We started from a wet, cold climate then moved to beautiful sunny grasslands and finally to a hot and rocky landscape. Our first stop was Volcano Negra. This volcano is one of the most active volcanoes of Galapagos and had the last eruption in 2005.
We then continued our journey to Volcano Chico. On our way we saw lots of Guava trees — our guide told us that guava trees grows like weed. Each guava has more than 5000 seeds which spread very quickly across the island by birds. As a result, the whole area is covered with Guava trees. It got scorching as we approached the crater. There were ash and rock everywhere, but the sight was magnificent. We had a quick lunch and then headed back to our starting point. It was strenuous on the way back as most of the trek was uphill.
Next morning we took the ferry back to Santa Cruz island. This time we were prepared and decided to sit at the back of the boat instead of front which helped us with seasickness. After coming back to Santa Cruz, we stayed for another night in a hostel. Next day early morning we took a cab back to Itabaca channel, then a ferry and bus ride back to the airport. Galapagos islands were fantastic and a unique experience for us which was well beyond our imagination. Overall, we had an excellent time — it’s a beautiful place full of exotic wildlife and plants surrounded by majestic blue water.
~ Shuchi
Originally published at our-travel-story.com on November 6, 2014.
