Our Andean Adventure: Galápagos Islands: Part One

We're staying in the Galápagos for nine days -- it's our longest stretch in one place over the course of our 55-day trip. We figured if we were going to plop down for a while somewhere, this would be the best place to do it -- and it really has been incredible.

The Galápagos Islands, known as the Enchanted Islands, are an archipelago of volcanic islands 600 miles off the west coast of Ecuador. There are 15 main islands, three smaller islands, and numerous rocks and islets. Only five of the islands are populated: Baltra, Floreana, Isabela, Santa Cruz, and San Cristóbal (total population of all five: 50,000). We're staying on San Cristóbal Island (population 8,000), in one of the very few Airbnbs here.

About 97% of the Galápagos' land area has been designated a national park, and the 27,000 square miles of ocean surrounding the islands has been declared a marine reserve (second in size only to Australia's Great Barrier Reef).

And I just have to say -- this part of the world lives up to its hype.

But first, let's talk about how we got here. Upon arrival at the Guayaquil Airport, we had to show proof of vaccination and negative COVID tests. We also had to purchase a Transit Control Card, on which we would provide details of our visit to San Cristóbal. All of our bags had to pass a biosecurity screening to make sure we weren't bringing any harmful organisms; the food I had purchased from the Guayaquil grocery store was flagged and inspected by hand. After all of this 'special' stuff, we made our way through the regular airport screening.

The flight itself was almost two hours. Upon landing at the San Cristóbal Airport (which is very small), we had to turn in our Transit Control Card and pay the National Park entry fee -- $300 for all of us ($100 for adult foreigners, $50 for child foreigners). Once again, we had to send our bags through a biosecurity screening. After that, we were home free!

We were picked up at the airport by our Airbnb hosts; five minutes later, we'd reached the Galeodan Suites. We highly, highly recommend staying at the Galeodan Suites if you ever visit San Cristóbal: www.galeodan.com. A family built and runs these Suites; mom is from the Galápagos, and dad is from Ireland. The family lives here, too, and makes sure all of us guests are comfortable. We have a two-bedroom apartment for our stay -- and it feels great to have a little more space for a while (and a dedicated clothesline!). We are staying in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the main port of San Cristóbal and the provincial capital of Galápagos.

After receiving our Galeodan orientation, we changed out of our shoes and put on flip flops -- and took a five-minute walk to Playa Mann, the closest beach. And...wow, just wow. There were sea lions ALL OVER. Sea lions in the water, on the rocks, on the sand. Adult females, adult males, youngsters, and pups. They. Were. Everywhere. It was the coolest, and the kids basically lost their minds (Taylor and Wyatt are animal crazy, and Wyatt's favorite animals are sea lions). From Playa Mann, we walked to another nearby beach -- Punta Carola. More sea lions, plus marine iguanas.

Sea lions! Everywhere!

At Playa Mann

The next day, Saturday, on a walk into town, we saw a blue-footed booby. And we stopped several times to watch the sea lions -- they're enthralling to watch.

On Sunday, we took a taxi (here, they're actually taxi trucks) inland. We wanted to drive across the southern part of San Cristóbal and get a feel for a different area of the island. The landscape changes dramatically as you drive up; down by the ocean, it's like a desert -- quite arid and brown. But up just 200-300 meters, green takes over and the temperatures drop. We drove up to El Junco, the only freshwater lagoon on any island in the Galápagos and the main water source on San Cristóbal. Because it was morning, it was foggy and we didn't have great visibility at El Junco, but we appreciated not having to hike up in the heat.

Hiking up to El Junco

El Junco

From El Junco, we drove to the Galapaguera de Cerro Colorado, the Galápagos tortoise breeding center. It's free to enter, and you follow an 800-meter path through the center, seeing baby tortoises and the super big guys along the way.

All of these pens hold the baby turtles.

Here's a big guy. These tortoises can live up to 200 years.

After getting our fill of tortoises, we drove a few more minutes to Puerto Chino, a beautiful white-sand beach with, yes, lots of sea lions. Unfortunately, this beach also had insane horse flies, and my legs got mauled right and left. From Puerto Chino, we drove back home, and then walked over to Playa Mann for a lazy afternoon at the beach -- with all the sea lions.

Monday was a quiet, gray day. We went for walks, visited Playa Mann, watched sea lions, did laundry, and conquered some schoolwork.

And then Tuesday, we took the famous 360 tour around San Cristóbal. We booked this tour through an agency, Scuba Eden, which we would highly recommend (talk to Junior and Ramiro!). Scuba Eden gave us snorkeling equipment, and we met our National Park naturalist guide (a must when going on any tour) at the pier about 7:30am. From the pier, we took a water taxi to our boat -- the Don Wacho. Our family and three other couples would be taking the tour together.

The first stop on the tour was Kicker Rock, known locally as Leon Dormido, or the sleeping lion -- because from a certain angle it looks like a sleeping lion. Our guide told us to suit up so we could get in the water and snorkel. Our family was the last to get in the water. Tim went first, followed by Wyatt, me, and then Taylor. We were way out in the ocean, and the water was choppy and about 200 meters deep. Taylor had issues breathing with her mask, and wanted to get back into the boat. I was totally fine to oblige, and so she and I swam back to the boat. We watched as the snorkelers looked at fish AND a hammerhead shark (which I kind of wanted to see, and kind of didn't want to see). We also watched as one poor soul in our group got sick in the choppy water -- this guy continued to be sick throughout the day (#myworstnightmare).

Leon Dormido

Hanging on the Don Wacho

Can you spot Tim and Wyatt by Kicker Rock? (Me neither.)

From Leon Dormido, we zoomed to Punta Pitt and saw blue- and red-footed boobies and other birds. We then visited another white-sand beach to snorkel and walk around. There, we saw more fish and a ray. After that beach, we motored around the island some more, and stopped in shallow water for lunch. Following lunch, we took the dinghy to the beach and then hiked over volcanic rock to a lagoon where we jumped in for more snorkeling. We saw a giant sea tortoise and several white tipped reef sharks. I was cool after seeing just one shark -- I was set, didn't need to see anymore (#notasharkperson). We got back to Don Wacho and motored the rest of the way around the island, getting back to the port about 4:30pm. It was a very cool day.

Tim was hoping for lots of surf while we were here...but no such luck. Finally, on Wednesday, there were some waves at La Loberia, just outside of the main town. He cabbed over to that beach and caught a few small waves. He went back Thursday for a few more small waves.

Junior from Scuba Eden set us up with a fishing trip on Thursday afternoon. Again, we needed a guide to go with us. Ramiro was our guide, and we went out on the Star Fisher. For the first couple hours, we caught nada. And then, success! We caught three fish -- a barracuda, tuna, and something else.

Fish = caught. You can see Five Fingers in the background -- a large rock that looks like, well, five fingers.

Wyatt reeled this one in. We have no idea what it is.

The pace of this week has been quite slow, but we're good with it. And as I mentioned, this apartment has been a plus. We've been able to have breakfast at home, and not be on top of one another. It is funny though -- it's such a small town, and we keep seeing the same people over and over and over again (namely, this one college student from Michigan who's here on study abroad...along with probably a few dozen other American students).

We're not done with San Cristóbal yet -- we're here till Sunday morning. Gotta get our sea lion fill before moving on. ;)

p.s. -- It took me about three hours (seriously) to upload all these dang photos in this post. The Internet on this island is not the best, you could say. I'll post Part Two about the Galápagos from Guayaquil, where the connection will definitely be better.