On to the Galapagos

Monday, October 24, 2016
Puerto Villamil, Galápagos, Ecuador
Now, for a total change of pace, on to Ecuador and the Galapgos islands. Caught a shuttle to Juliaca with America Tours (15 soles each rather than the 192 that our hotel would have charged for a taxi). Our Latam flight to Lima was delayed for about a half an hour on the runway, but we weren't terribly concerned since we had a 6 hour layover in Lima. When we landed, we stuck our bags in left luggage and went over to Wyndham airport hotel and sat in their bar and had a very nice meal of salmon & shrimp raviolis. Then another couple of hour flight to Guayquil & a very short taxi to the Air Suites hotel for a brief nights sleep--better than crashing in the airport. A bit of drama in the morning as when we went down for breakfast, we couldn't get the door to our room open when we came back. After some anxious moments, the guy from the hotel managed to jimmy the lock with a kitchen knife. Turns out that when you push the button on the door knob, NOTHING will open the lock. Anyway, across the street (literally, but a 5 minute drive because of the road design) to catch our flight to Baltra, in the Galapagos. Lots of screening to make sure we are not carrying any contaminants. Three step process to transfer from the Airport. First a free bus to the channel between Baltra and Santa Cruz, then a water taxi across the channel (1 $US), then a bus across Santa Cruz to the town of Puerto Ayora (2 $US). Getting used to thinking prices in USD rather than Soles is tough. Got checked into our hostal, La K-Leta Guest House, and quickly got all of our tours from Santa Cruz and from Isabela lined up, as well as our transfers to and from Isabela. Andy, our host, was exceptional in figuring out the timing of everything so that we could fit in as much as possible, and handled all of our bookings. For our first afternoon, we took a walk over to Tortuga Beach, along the way getting our first taste of the Galapagos' unique flora and fauna, including the opuntia cactus trees and the amphibious iguanas. Tortuga is a beautiful long stretch of white sand, but the currents are too strong for swimming--it is strictly a surfing beach. Just past the main beach, though, is a perfectly calm bay/lagoon with a nice strip of sand, perfect for swimming and kayaking. They close up the beach at 5 pm though, partly so that people aren't out there in the dark and partly because the mosquitoes come out at sunset. Went for dinner on Tomas de Berlanga street, which has tables from all of the little restaurants set up in the street at night and is home of the $10 dinner (fish, seafood, chicken or beef). The next day, we had a tour to Santa Fe island to see some birds and marine life. Now you would think that being on the equator on a beautiful sunny day that the water would be a wonderful temperature for snorkeling, but you would be wrong! The water temperature was a bracing 21C (70F). About half an hour is the max I could take it. We snorkeled in 2 spots at Santa Fe. The first had a ton of fish (due to the number of birds on the rocks above providing lots of guano for them to eat). The second spot was home to a very large number of sea lions and swimming with them was a real highlight, although when a huge alpha male bull sneaks up beside you and you look over and see it, it is a bit frightening. After the second snorkel, and lunch, we headed back across to Santa Cruz, to a lovely beach down the coast from Puerto Ayora. It was low tide (but rising) and couldn't get through the rocks to land on the beach at first. (Another boat had been trying and waiting for well over an hour to get in. We took on its passengers (our boat, though bigger, had a shallower draught) and our captain went around to the other side, where the waves were directly behind us, and "surfed" us through a narrow opening in the rocks. The beach was a beautiful pristine strand, with of course tons of wildlife, including marine iguanas and all manner of birds. By the time we were ready to go, the captain had been able to move the boat around to where we had had planned to land in the first place and we all walked out to it and headed off.The next day, Sunday, we were up early for a 7 am, 2 hour, speedboat ride to Isla Isabela. The ride was relatively smooth and we were ashore on Isabela, having queued up and paid our $5 municipal landing fee, by 9:30. After checking in at Hostal Loja, wandering around town a bit, and then lunch, we walked out through the wetlands just outside town, to the giant tortoise breeding station, seeing lots of birds along the way and marveling at the size and obvious age of some of the tortoises. Then we went for a walk along the road by the huge beach that runs west of town, heading for the "Wall of Tears". By the time we got to the "entrance" and realized that it was still another 5 km. to get to the wall, we decided to turn back since our leg strength and water were running a little low. And we wanted to save some energy for our trip the next day to Los Tuneles.

Comments

Robin
2016-11-01

Hi.
I would like to ask you what was the cost of your trip around Galapagos.
I'm going there in February with a group of friends and we are looking for the cheapest sailing tour for 5days but any informations could help...
Rgds. Robin

Don Nghiem
2016-11-28

Hello,

I had a similar question as Robin's. May I ask which tour group you went with in Galapagos and how much the tours were?The Bartolome trip looks awesome.

Thank you in advance for your time and assistance.

Best regards,
Don

2025-02-17

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