The Galapagos seemed like a truly exotic location to me before we planned our trip. I assumed we’d need tens of thousands of dollars to go and see it, and that we’d have to be very rich to actually be comfortable while doing so. We were pleasantly surprised that it was quite affordable, and that an on-board days-long cruise was not the only option.
We flew from the capital of Quito where we had spent a few days getting organised. We decided to take smaller bags with us to make our transport more streamlined (and cheaper), so needed to organise our belongings. We also went to a sports equipment store and bought snorkel gear for what we expected would be cheaper than doing so on one of the islands. (We were right, it was half the cost than buying it on our first island).
The entry into the Galapagos is very regulated with many checks and costs. We had to pay a special tax of $20 USD per person at the airport, our luggage was checked for plastics and food items, which are not allowed. Once landed in the Galapagos, our bags were checked again by sniffer dogs and by people, and we had to pay an additional $200 USD per person to enter, but this was just once. These costs help to keep the archipelago clean and safe and therefore completely acceptable. The flight itself was two-in-one: about half an hour to Guayaquil to drop people off and pick some more up, then about an hour and a half to San Cristobal, our first island.
San Cristobal turned out to be our favourite. It was a good mix of island feel with modern conveniences. We were stunned by how much wildlife we could see in the middle of town: hundreds of sealions, many just lounging on benches and sidewalks in the way of people, lizards, crabs and iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks, blue-footed boobies doing the same, and big pelicans swooping in the sky, as well as frigate birds. Seeing all these creatures made us excited to be there.
One of the first things we did after dropping off our bags to our Airbnb was to grab a cheap local lunch and then locate a tourist office to book a tour that Callum read about online. Through his research he discovered that there is no point going to the Galapagos if you’re not doing the 360 tour. This tour takes you all around the island and includes the opportunity to snorkel with hammerhead sharks! We had four days on this island and it’s a good thing we did, since we couldn’t get an opening to do this tour until our final day on San Cristobal. It’s a tour that you should maybe book in advance, or you can chance it like us. It’s cheaper to book tours in person, though, and everything else you can organize the day before if you want. This is relevant for March 2025 for anyone reading my post from the future. We also booked our ferry tickets to Santa Cruz in advance which was a smart decision.
The other days leading up to the 360 tour we filled our time with our own self-guided tour and the Highlands tour that is popular there. Firstly, we took a $4 USD taxi to Playa La Loberia. It was a short ride and about a 15-minute walk until we reached a protected lagoon. At 830am there was almost no one there, so we enjoyed the snorkelling alone. We saw 9 or 10 enormous sea turtles, heaps of colourful fish, and swam with two sealions who were curious and playful. Callum would try to get them to mimic him by doing somersaults and twists in the water and they did! It was a lot of fun.
A note on the weather: we saw the forecast for our time in March to be full of thunder, lightning and rainstorms. This made me nervous to go to the Galapagos—would it be worth it? But it was, since the rain seemed to occur around lunchtime until dinnertime, making the whole morning sunny and warm. Therefore, we did most of our activities in the morning, got back to town for showers, lunch, and a rest, before venturing out for dinner once the skies cleared up. It was a schedule that worked well for us as we prefer to do things in the morning and get progressively more tired throughout the afternoon anyway. I’m in my forties, after all.
Our second day we did the Highlands tour via a taxi driver which included hiking up to a volcanic lake, visiting the tortoise sanctuary, and swimming at Puerto Chino beach. We enjoyed the exercise and views from atop the crater lake, but didn’t see any birdlife. We drove a short while to the tortoise reserve and did a self-guided walk finding small baby tortoises, teenagers, then a group of older, bigger ones munching on their lunch. I liked watching them and took about twenty different videos. The way they eat made me laugh. We then cooled off at the beach but couldn’t snorkel as the current was a tad too strong. I was okay to just have a dip or two in the water and admire the view as well as the salty sealions.
Finally, we enjoyed the 360 tour where after being fitted with wetsuits at the tour office, we were taken out on a boat further into the ocean with our first stop being ‘Kicker Rock’. This is a pair of giant rocks jutting out of the ocean like a cathedral. It is at this location we jumped into the deep water and dove down a bit to see the hammerheads on the ocean floor, circling and hunting for their food. I was quite nervous during the boat ride out, as I am not a fan of deep water…or of sharks. Well, everyone else was pumped and positive and the energy rubbed off on me. I jumped in confidently and saw thousands of fish at varying depths below my fins, with the vibrant blue of the water dazzling my eyes. I strained to see sharks, nervously waiting to be spooked by one. The guide gathered us around and encouraged us to stick close. He would dive quite deep then pop up and enthusiastically bellow “Whoa, sharks right below you! Hammerhead sharks! Whoooo!” I learned that if I wanted to see them, I’d have to dive a bit deeper. I learned how to do it and did indeed see the shapes of hammerheads far below, blurry and obscured by the deep currents. It was a bit scary but honestly, I was so interested and impressed with all the other fish we were seeing, that the scary feeling went away.
At one point we swam in between the two rocks where it was shallower, and the bottom was sandy. It was here I was able to see four for five hammerheads more clearly from the surface. I was mesmerised. I thought they were the coolest thing I’d ever seen with my own eyeballs.
This trip took us to three snorkel spots total, and we were fed lunch. At one of the spots our visit was cut short because another boat out in the open saw a pod of ocras. We all quickly returned to our boat and went full speed ahead to open water to catch up with the pod. The captain cut the engine, and we sat floating and watching the orcas for a long time. It was so cool. We also saw a pod of dolphins on our journey. During snorkelling, we also saw other sharks (just smaller to medium, nothing too big), stingrays, octopus, sea snakes, puffer fish, coral, and much more. This tour is something I would repeat if I ever found myself on San Cristobal again.
We took a ferry to Santa Cruz next which I’ll write about in my next post.
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