Words or pictures cannot do the Galapagos justice. It is a place that must be visited to understand the beauty and magic of the area.
Animals take a priority over humans in the Galapagos. Park benches and boardwalks are reserved for sea lions, marine iguana crossings are more prevalent than pedestrian crossings and diving bombing pelicans and blue footed boobies make swimming in certain area’s hazardous! It was not uncommon to go for a swim and in the space of 30mins see penguins chasing fish, turtles popping their head out of the water, sea lions playing even the odd galapagos shark lurking in the clear waters.
We arrived in the Galapagos with no plan so on our first night we headed out to do some research and saw a travel agency called GalaKiwi which was run by a kiwi bloke called Tim from Central Otago. We walked into the office and Tim’s heavily pregnant wife was the only person there, after she explained to us that GalaKiwi is a high end boutique agency that offers multi day group packages (that must be booked in advance) it became evident that this wasn’t what we were looking for, nor was it in our budget, it also became evident that she wasn’t particularly impressed by our lack of planning and research and didn’t have much time for us. As we walked out Tim walked in. They say opposites attract and this was the case for these two! Tim was a chilled out laid back Kiwi and upon learning that we were Kiwi’s and had rocked up with no plan or idea he took us under his wing and began preparing us an itinerary for our time in the Galapagos, much to the dismay of his wife. He told her to head to the next door restaurant by herself for dinner as he was going to take us around the small town to assist in booking some day trips etc and make some calls to arrange accommodation on the other islands for later on in our trip. Had we not met Tim we would not have had the amazing experience that we did in the Galapagos. He took over an hour of his own time that night to help us out and make arrangements. He refused to take any sort of payment for his time and just said he wanted to make sure we got the most out of our time in the Galapagos.
The next day we went off on a day trip to Kicker Rock which is recognized as one of the premier diving and snorkeling spots in the Galapagos. I lost count of how many turtles we saw, they we everywhere along with sharks, big bait balls of fish and sea lions. Kicker Rock is a 1.5 hour boat trip from San Cristobal Island and the rock itself just sticks up in the middle of the ocean, it has a big crack through the middle that you snorkel through. It is incredible as the crack it only 4m wide and about 60m long, throughout this little mission you are shoulder to shoulder with big sea lions fighting the surging waters and can see sharks down below, a truly incredible experience.
Transport between the three main islands is an experience in itself. The boats are 8-10m speed boats that go full throttle from island to island, each crossing takes approx. 3 hours. There is always a reasonable swell running and of the 20 people per trip you can guarantee at least 3-5 people will spew. At the beginning of each trip everyone is given a plastic bag as the driver does not stop or slow down for anything or anyone. Jen managed to make good use of her bag during one of the crossings.
From San Cristobal we headed to Santa Cruz for a couple of nights. Santa Cruz is the most populated island and the main attraction here is the highlands. A small drive up into the mountains takes you into a completely different climate where it constantly rains, is lush and green and there is an abundance of the famous giant tortoises. After Santa Cruz went over to our favourite island called Isabella. Isabella is the biggest Island but also the least populated. We loved our time on Isabella and again the wildlife was everywhere. There are no sealed streets instead just sandy tracks. We snorkeled through lava caves following sea turtles and marine iguanas along the way. The place we stayed (organized by Tim) was called “The Jungle” and right on the beach front. Behind the hotel was a big mangrove with pink flamingoes and all sorts of native birds.
The trip to the Galapagos was topped off by the fact upon arriving at the airport to depart we were told our flight had been cancelled. The airline arranged us a driver back to the town and a room at one of the nicest hotels in the Galapagos (over $400 per night). So we had one last night of luxury food and accommodation in the Galapagos thanks to Avianca Airlines!