12 Days in the Galapagos

Galapagos has been one of my all-time dream destinations ever since I was in grade school. As we slowly bused our way down the backbone of Ecuador, we realized we would likely never be closer to this exotic archipelago made famous by Darwin and his evolutionary theories. (Yes, you can sail there but the current regulations and fees make it very prohibitive to do so.)

Mainland Ecuador

Galapagos!

We were doing a fairly good job keeping to our budget and with some inspiration from a couple of backpacker blogs (here and here) we set out to make a plan to visit this wonderful place. We decided that we wouldn't take one of the long boat tours since (a) we already live on a boat and (b) we don't have the thousands of dollars this would require. As recommended by so many others before us, our strategy was:

• sleep in hostels on the three islands where the villages were
• do as many free activities as possible
• be very flexible and book last-minute day tours to bargain for the best price
• eat rice and beans for each meal to scrimp and save

Spraying the Luggage

We hopped on a short flight from Quito to the island of Santa Cruz. Before landing the flight attendants sprayed some kind of insect spray in the overhead compartments to ensure we weren't bringing any nasties to the ecologically sensitive islands.

Arriving at Isla Baltra

Santa Cruz

The airport is actually on a separate island devoid of vegetation and looks a bit like walking on the surface of the moon. To get to the main town on Santa Cruz, Puerto Ayora, it's necessary to take a bus, a ferry, and then another bus. From the bus we saw a giant tortoise walking down the bike path so we were able to cross of the first animal from our list!

Sea Lions Everywhere!

Finding a place to stay was no problem, there are plenty of small hostels in Puerto Ayora. We knew we would get gouged a little bit if we stayed near the water but it was late and we were happy to pay a premium not to lug our bag all over town. The hostel even had drinking water and hot water to shower so it was definitely a good start.

The Cheap Seats

Galapagos!

The next day we explored the town and got to work hunting down the best deals on the day trips we were interested in doing. Puerto Ayora and the other Galapagos towns are full of tour agencies. Only a few agencies actually run tours themselves - the tours are typically run by separate tour operators or boat owners who set the base price. The job of the agent is to call the tour operator to sort out price and availability and then add their own commission. By doing a last minute booking of a tour it's possible to fill an otherwise empty seat and bargain hard on the commission which is just extra money in the agent's pocket. The prices we found were at least 25% off the advertised price and less than half of what people that had booked online from home had paid. The downside? We spent a lot of time hoofing it around Puerto Ayora in the heat wheeling and dealing.

A Swimming Marine Iguana

This tortoise probably has 100 years on us... 

While sorting this out, we were able to take advantage of several free or almost free activities on Santa Cruz. We checked out the Charles Darwin Research Station (the home of the creepily stuffed Lonesome George tortoise), the fish market, snorkelled at Las Grietas, El Chato tortoise reserve, walked through some lava tunnels. We found a much better place to stay ("The Dove", with big rooms and a very relaxing outdoor hammock area) and discovered the much less expensive local markets further back from the water. Much time was spent wandering around watching the sea lions and marine iguanas which seem to have overtaken the port area.

Isabela

Yeah Overlanders!

Nesting site near Isabela

Isla Isabela is a much smaller island west of Santa Cruz. The island has much cooler water because of the currents hitting its west side so the chances of seeing Galapagos penguins were slightly higher than nil. We took a "ferry" which are little speedboats with massive outboard engines doing the two-hour run twice a day. The ferries were either a lovely experience with great views and an opportunity to have a nap, or a horrible experience crowded in with other seasick passengers in the heat or rain.

The "Tunnels"

The Tunnels

They may have been attracted to my watch?

As soon as we saw Isabela we knew we would like the island much more than Santa Cruz. The bay was somewhere we would have definitely anchored had we been on the boat. And the best part was that our new friends, James and Belle, were also there and would be able to hang out for a few hours before they headed back to Santa Cruz and their van, Butch, parked safely back on the mainland. We went for a nice swim near the dock amongst marine iguanas and sea lions. We were all jonesin' for an ice cold beer but couldn't seem to find one, let alone four, for less than 7USD. We settled for climbing up to the watchtower on the beach and having a laugh while we watched the waves roll in - utterly lovely.

Shark!

A Seahorse!

The World's Most Peaceful Creatures

Sunset on Isabela

One tour we had heard a lot about was Los Tunales (The Tunnels) trip on Isabela. It was a short boat ride to a tiny bay which had been formed from hardening lava. The entrance was surrounded by a reef with massive breakers that would have been impossible to attempt in a sailboat. We were trying to figure out how the captain was going to do it. He circled a couple of times and revved up the three 400hp outboards before powering diagonally through the trough of the wave. It was very impressive and he hadn't even appeared to have broken a sweat. The Tunales definitely lived up to the hype. In addition to seeing blue-footed boobies very close up, we swam with white-tipped reef sharks and went "face-to-face" with them in their den, sea turtles galore, and even saw our first seahorse!

Penguins!

Despite being almost an hour late and our kayak taking on water, the short kayak/snorkelling tour around the bay in Isabella was enough to strike another animal from our list - the Galapagos penguin. Even though it was pushing 30 degrees celsius, these guys were happily sunbathing on the rocks. We were amazed at how tiny they were!

They might need to get that professionally cleaned...

Kicker Rock

Swimming with these guys never gets old.

Very hazy outline of a hammerhead shark

San Cristobal

San Cristobal Sea Lions

We made our way to our third and final island town, San Cristobal. We negotiated hard for a day trip to Kicker Rock, a very tall boot-shaped island just around the corner from the port. This was mostly a site for divers but the snorkelling was decent and we saw many turtles, some manta rays, and even the very hazy outline of a hammerhead shark! The bird life was abundant with blue-footed boobies, nasca boobies, and the frigate birds with their red throat-pouch (?) inflated for breeding. San Cristobal was a pretty laid-back spot to wind up our Galapagos trip. We especially liked the hike to Frigatebird Hill and La Loberia beach where we watched young sea lions play for an hour with a stick we had thrown to them.

Tortoise in Captivity

When it was time to fly back to Quito, our feelings about Galapagos were mixed:

• Our strategy had definitely worked, although Galapagos is very expensive relative to South America, we were able to experience it on a budget, spending not much more that we would have on the mainland. (Beware though, many of the prices in the other blogs we've linked to above have already risen 20-25%.)

• We had seen all the animals we had wanted to see, just as many as the people we had spoken to that did 5-7 day boat tours.

Tortoise in the "Wild"

• The animals are definitely the stars here. With a few exceptions the locals we met were mainly grumpy, occasionally rude, and in general looked upon tourists as an unlimited ATM from which they could demand any sum of money they required.

• Conservation efforts in the Galapagos appear to be lacklustre at best. We aren't experts in this area but we've definitely seen a few tropical islands recently. Although Galapagos isn't the dirtiest, it's definitely not the cleanest (Bonaire would probably win this award). And as is usually the case, money is definitely the culprit. Tourist demand to visit the islands has grown exponentially each year, resulting in a massive increase in population, especially in individuals that don't have the same connection to the islands as those that have lived there for decades. Attempts to limit migration from mainland Ecuador have largely been unsuccessful since Ecuadorians can essentially come and go as they please. You can clearly see from aerial photos how the towns have grown in the last several decades, destroying vital habitats for creatures that exist nowhere else in the world. The towns are unable to support the freshwater needs of their inhabitants with just wells and reverse osmosis so a large portion of drinking water is shipped in bottles from the mainland. Despite the vigorous spraying of the overhead bins on the airplanes non-indigenous plants and corresponding insect species have been brought to the islands both accidentally and on purpose. Mainland animals (cows, horses, chickens, dogs, cats, rats) seem to be uncontrolled and certainly step on and eat tortoise and turtle eggs. Giant tortoises are reportedly unable to sustain their population by breeding in the wild so their eggs are brought to the sanctuaries until they reach a suitable age to be released. We wondered if the various conservation groups are even doing more harm than good - by raising animals in captivity are we not disrupting the evolution whose hypothesis was confirmed on these very islands? 

It would seem that the fate of Galapagos was decided as soon as the first settlers arrived two hundred years ago. Although we felt very fortunate to be able to go there we left feeling that the only real way to conserve the unique ecological situation in the Galapagos is to prohibit people and all of their destructive belongings from going there.