The Galápagos Islands – an archipelago of volcanic islands in the Eastern Pacific, roughly on the Equator, 600 miles or so off mainland South America, a province of Ecuador, one of the most ecologically important places on Earth, home to unique species, the place where Charles Darwin’s observations from his 5 week visit in 1835 helped to shape humanity’s understanding of evolution – and Steve’s last remaining truly bucket-list destination. He’d wanted to go for his 50th birthday but awkward family stuff got in the way, then for his 60th but COVID scuppered that, and had planned to end his diving career there, going out with a bang when he’d be 65. Sadly his diving days were prematurely ended for him before we got to Galapagos, but luckily that didn’t dim his enthusiasm for a visit. 

It’s not the easiest of places to get to – we flew from Panama City to Ecuador’s capital Quito, staying for the shortest possible time (due to altitude) at an airport hotel, arriving late at night and departing on the earliest direct flight the following morning.  Quito airport is significantly lower than the city itself but still at the highest altitude we’d been to on this trip, and coming directly to 2,500 metres from sea level we both felt slightly dizzy when we got off the plane, and Steve’s blood oxygen was at the lowest level we’d seen.  But he got through the night!

The Galapagos are such an ecologically precious place that every possible precaution is taken to protect the islands and, in addition to the faff of getting there, tourists have to jump through a lot of hoops too. You have to REALLY want to visit Galapagos!

At the airport for 4am, our first task was to queue for the $20 Transit Control Card. We were 3rd in line, but eventually learned that the office didn’t open until 5am, by which time there were probably 100 people behind us. Then luggage needed to be inspected for contraband fruit, veg, animals & minerals, and customs declarations completed. All this before you can even check your bags in! Thank God we were there early – some people were getting rather agitated at the prospect of missing their flight.

A 2 hour Avianca Ecuador flight took us to Galapagos’s main airport on Baltra Island, originally an airfield built by the United States during WWII to protect the Panama Canal from enemy submarines (that didn’t arrive), and now one of the world’s first ‘green’ airports. Stepping off the plane was like arriving on another planet – cacti covered the airport grounds and iguanas wandered around – and then we were brought back to reality with the $200/person National Park entry fee. The fee had been $100 for decades while tourism, conservation costs and the Galapagos population had risen exponentially, but it’s still a small price to pay to be one of the lucky 250,000 people visiting these special islands each year.

Arriving passengers must take the airport bus 5Km to the ‘ferry’ to get from Baltra to Santa Cruz Island, cost $5 each, the luggage magically gets transported and loaded onto the roof of the barge that takes passengers across the small strait in just 5 minutes for an additional $1. It’s organised chaos that works perfectly, with huge land iguanas quietly watching over proceedings. From the ferry it’s either a taxi or bus 30 miles across the island to the main town of Puerto Ayora – Debbie insisted that we weren’t messing around with another non-air conditioned bus in the heat and humidity and we took one of the plethora of Toyota pick up trucks (the standard format for Galapagos taxis) directly to our accommodation.

We had scheduled 2 weeks in the Galapagos, initially booking 3 days in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz to allow us to get the lie of the land, see if we could get a cruise at a bargain price locally, and organise some tours and island hopping if not. We quickly managed to secure a cruise for our 2nd week (at a discount but certainly not a bargain – more on that later) so planned our first week split between Santa Cruz and San Cristobal islands.

Santa Cruz

This is where over half of the 30,000 residents of Galapagos live and the main logistical and tourist hub. Steve had found a ‘castle’ that he liked the look of on, Debbie thought it was naff but we booked our first 3 nights at La Fortaleza da Haro anyway. It was actually rather quaint – a labour of love built from volcanic stone by artist, dive master & naturalist Roberto Haro, run enthusiastically as a small hotel by his wife Gianna, and mainly used as free accommodation for their grown up children and their families while they saved to study Masters courses in the USA and Italy. They welcomed us warmly to their home and even fed us delicious sausages with chimichurri when they had a BBQ one afternoon. We don’t think they expected anyone to laze around the pool when there’s so much to wonder at outside, but Debbie had spent a stressful morning trying to pay for the cruise and we had the luxury of time so could afford to some relaxation.

The time in town gave us the opportunity to get our laundry done ($7.50 for the lot, ready the same day if necessary), we discovered happy hour at Restaurant 1835 (the year Charles Darwin visited) on the main strip with 2 cocktails for a bargain $12 and Galapagos’s only brewery, Debbie had a pedicure (it was an emergency, the gel had failed on her toenails), we we ate the most delicious but bloody ugly scorpion fish. Puerto Ayora surprised us – far nicer than the reviews had suggested and food, drink and accommodation prices were actually very reasonable. 

We were delighted when we stumbled across a sea lion lounging on a bench, a group of small marine iguanas gathered on a town centre footpath, pelicans hanging around the fishing boats, a huge turtle swimming by and loads of baby sharks (doo doo doo doo doo doo) pottering around the pier. Wildlife was everywhere around town and totally unconcerned by the people – amazing, but only a taster.

Tortuga Bay is one of the most famous beaches in the Galapagos and we set off early morning to follow the paved path from Puerto Ayora that was supposedly 1Km but was more like 2.5Km. Along the way we spotted a huge giant tortoise, loads of lizards and some amazing cacti before emerging onto a pristine sweeping white sand beach with turquoise water and strong surf. We passed a sea lion lazing on the warm sand, spotted some marine iguanas swimming in a rock pool, and made our way around the corner to a calm lagoon & mangrove beach with fabulously warm water for swimming and trees to shade under while gazing out at the stunning beauty of the coastline. We did get shouted at for hanging our bags on a branch though – the National Park rangers ensure that none of the flora or fauna are damaged by thoughtless tourists. And just when we were already amazed by what we’d seen, marine iguanas came out of the sea and strutted along the beach, and back around the corner we found a group of 50 or more of them.

San Cristobal

Around 50 miles ESE of Puerto Ayora and (according to our guide in Medellin, Colombia) the place with the most easily accessible wildlife and the best snorkelling/diving site – so of course we were going to visit the island. The inter-island ferries (speedboats carrying 20-40 passengers), leave at 07.00 and 15.00 each day, and it’s recommended to take a morning one for hopefully calmer sea conditions.

The Galapagos archipelago is surprisingly vast, and the distances between islands are significant, especially given that this is open sea with nothing South until Antarctica. So journeys can be very bumpy and sick bags are provided. Fortunately we had a fairly smooth 2 hour crossing and were at our lovely AirBnB apartment in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (2 minutes walk from the seafront) just after 9am. And shortly after, at a seafront restaurant, we discovered Ecuadorian breakfast – beef stew with mashed plantain and fried egg for Steve and mashed plantain with cheese and chorizo for Debbie – wow!

We’d been amazed by the sea lions hanging around on Puerto Ayora benches, but on San Cristobal they were on another level – playfully swimming around the ferries as they arrived, lazing on the pontoons to greet passengers as they disembarked, and almost every part of the rocky shoreline had a few sitting watching the world go by. We sat for a while under a seafront tree, just marvelling at them, and the hundreds of bright red Sally Lightfoot crabs that shared the rocks with the sea lions and jumped nimbly across gaps. The sheer number of each species was a sight to behold, and the way they live in perfect harmony amazing. We spent a day at Playa Mann, the closest beach to town, sharing the beach with the sea lions who didn’t give a stuff about the tourists and quite happily lay next to them even encroaching onto the beach towels at times. Steve was trying to concentrate on a chess game on his phone but was disturbed by a couple of sea lions playfully jousting next to him – that was his excuse for losing the game! We sat and had sundowners at a seafront bar and when Debbie got up to take a sunset photo of a pelican and looked to her left – oh dear God, the beach was literally covered with a colony of sea-lions, perhaps 500 or more of them! And when darkness fell, and many were trying to sleep, the youngsters of the colony went for a wander and many got lost so were climbing over sleeping bodies in search of their mother, often latching on to a random female who promptly dispatched them with a roar. Debbie got quite emotional hoping that those poor sea lion pups weren’t forever seperated from their mum. 

We were beyond amazed at what we’d seen so far in Galapagos, but Kicker Rock was a must-do and we set off on a snorkelling day trip. Debbie wasn’t going to rub salt into Steve’s wounds by going on a diving boat so she could dive and he would be confined to snorkelling. Access to the site is strictly controlled and boats are given a time slot, so we were to spend an hour or so on a beach first. Imagine our delight when our boat broke down midway through the 1 hour+ journey, and Debbie was wondering what the contingency/emergency plan was, but a spanner and some banging seemed to sort things out and we made it to the pristine white sand beach with turquoise waters, a spectacular view of Kicker Rock and some vicious horse flies.

And then to Kicker Rock where the conditions were not as forecast – lumpy, bumpy and windy so not suitable for snorkelling in the channel between the towering rocks but we could go around the outside. Before too long there were plenty of turtles swimming around us, and Steve claims to have spotted a Hammerhead Shark (for which Kicker Rock is famed) but Debbie didn’t. And then, just below us, THERE WAS A WHALE SHARK! The biggest fish on the planet and that had eluded Steve on his 700+ scuba dives. Amazing, graceful and absolutely enormous. We saw it a few times during our couple of hours in the water – wow!

And on the way back, after the boat had broken down a couple more times, we came across a pod of Orcas – also known as Killer Whales but actually the largest species in the dolphin family. What an amazing day – who needs scuba diving when you can see so much just snorkelling?!

After a much bumpier ferry ride back to Santa Cruz, and with a vessel that had caught the breaking down bug from our snorkelling boat (a little more scary when you are 10 miles or so from land and in rather big open ocean swell), it was time to join our cruise. The land-based week had been phenomenal, could it get any better?…