The two-hour ferry ride from Santa Cruz to Isabela was a bumpy and uncomfortable ride. We got stuck taking the seats in the front of the boat, which is smelly from the diesel making it easy to feel nauseous. I don’t get seasick at all, but this ride was a bit much for me. The disembarkation process took way too long as well, being stuck on the boat a further 30 minutes once reaching the island. This could’ve been bad luck on the day and not necessarily what another’s experience would be.
As for the island, though it is the biggest island in the Galapagos, the town itself is the smallest of the three islands that we saw. Once you get off the ferry, you could walk the couple of kilometres into town if you want, but it’s much easier (and inexpensive) to take a waiting taxi truck to your accommodation. Since it’s so small, every driver would know every hotel or guesthouse.
We settled in and found a café to have an overpriced lunch, scouted out the grocery store options for when siesta time was over, and had a look at the beach, which was impressive. We booked a tour for the next day and rested a bit for our first day.
The tour we did was a worthwhile experience as we checked off a few things on our to-see list: seahorses—which are much bigger than you’d expect, about eight inches long; penguins (which we do have in Australia, but, this day we got to swim with them!), and a few more blue-footed boobies, which was one of my favourite things to see. We also swam with so many more turtles that I am practically sick of seeing them now.
The boat ride out and back in was very choppy and chilly, and the pouring rain did make me feel a bit apprehensive about snorkelling in the ocean. Thankfully, though visibility wasn’t great, we were able to see enough, and the water felt warmer than the air.
Our next day we saved our money and went to a free snorkel area next to the port. We walked our way out this time and the boardwalk to a platform was positively littered with marine iguanas. At the end of the boardwalk there is a platform and benches for people to put their belongings and hang their towels. We jumped in the water and swam with the iguanas, fish, and played with the sea lions once more.
Our final day in the Galapagos we wavered between snorkelling again at the free spot or doing a long walk to try and find wild tortoises. We chose the latter and made the mistake of walking several kilometres in the heat and full sun with limited water supply. It is highly advisable to just fork out the few bucks to rent a bicycle, as that would have made the journey a lot quicker and more enjoyable. We were determined and did eventually see one single tortoise munching on a snack in the shade, conveniently situated next to a couple of benches for sweaty and tired tourists like us. After this we made the long journey back to town, rationing our water and desperate for a cold shower upon our return.
We took a return ferry at 3pm to Santa Cruz where we flew out the following day back to Quito. The Galapagos is a destination I never thought we’d be able to afford, especially since we are travelling for seven continuous months and trying to budget accordingly. We were happy to discover that it is possible to have an amazing time seeing a ton of stuff whilst enjoying solid ground after every excursion. You don’t HAVE to do a live-aboard boat tour. You can save thousands of dollars and do what we did: stay in budget guesthouses and pay for day trip tours one at a time. Make your own breakfast each day, enjoy the free lunches on tours and save money that way too. All in all, for 11 days in the Galapagos, visiting three islands and paying for four big tours, we spent about $6K AUD for the two of us. This includes flights to and from the Galapagos (from Quito) as well as the entry fees. We think this is quite reasonable considering the prices of some of the boat-tours we researched. The Galapagos is a must-see for anyone remotely interested in wildlife and marine animals. Put it on your bucket list and go before things get even more expensive.
Travel Bugs 