Galapagos Islands

My Wife and I took an amazing trip to the Galapagos Islands in 2024. We took a four day cruise to explore the eastern islands.  

HIGHLANDS (SANTA CRUZ ISLAND)
Dry landing. A 45-minute bus ride will take us to the Santa Cruz highlands, located in the northwest of Puerto Ayora, where we will find a natural reserve with giant tortoises. * These enormous and slow-moving reptiles are responsible for the island’s name and therefore approaching them in their humid and forested abode is always an inspiring adventure. They can weigh between 250 and 300 kg and can live up to 200 years. Additionally, travelers can walk inside surprising lava tubes.
Difficulty level: easy
Type of terrain: flat and muddy

EL BARRANCO Prince Philip ́s Steps (Genovesa Island)
Be marveled at the variety of sea life that uses the crevices of the lava cliffs for shelter.
Red-billed Tropicbirds fly overhead, switching between their nests and the bay, and a small colony of fur seals may be found near the landing site. You will be dropped off at a steep stairway that begins on rocks at the foot of a path that leads through a seabird colony full of Nazca and Red-footed Boobies. At the plateau, the trail continues inland allowing you to see more nesting booby colonies in the thin Palo Santo Forest. Near the end of the trail, over a rocky lava plain,
Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrels can be observed flying in all directions. If you are lucky, you may …

Disclaimer: this review will be very long. However, the Galápagos Islands largely deserve it. The first site inscribed on the list is an exceptional one. My expectations were immeasurable (after all, I am a biologist, a birder and a scuba diver, the Galápagos should be a paradise for me!), but they have been surpassed! Story day by day.

Days 1-2: Logistic
The first two days were filled with travel and acclimatisation. I left Quebec directly for the Galápagos via Quebec City - Montreal (due to a delayed flight) - Toronto - Quito - Guayaquil (only a short stopover without getting off the plane) and finally Isla Baltra. There is a ferry to Isla Santa Cruz and a bus waiting for travellers to take them to Puerto Ayora. In February 2020, the access fees to the national park were 100$, plus another 20$ for some kind of tourist card. I completed this second day by checking out the dive shops and buying my ferry ticket for the first hour the next morning. Off to the stunning Isabella.

Days 3-4: Wildlife viewing on Isabella

After arriving in Puerto Villamil, I spent two days walking the trails around the city. The beach, first of all, is beautiful and teeming with shorebirds, pelagic birds, marine iguanas (I loved these! See how cool they are!) and colourful crabs. A path of almost 6 km leads to the Muros de las Lagrimas, an abonimation built by inmates in the days when Isabella was …

I visited this WHS in May/June 2019. I arrived in Baltra Seymour GPS airport from Quito and I was based on Santa Cruz island for 9 nights/10 days going out on 8 different boat trips to different uninhabited islands and the inhabited island of Floreana.

All the praise the Galapagos Islands receive is fully justified and my already high expectations were met. It is a very fragile natural environment which can easily be lost or degraded in no time (as has already happened in the not so distant past) but I must say that on the whole the Ecuador government and national park management system are doing a very good job to control and manage the effects of tourism on the Galapagos islands.

The most outstanding feature of the Galapagos is the fact that most wildlife is very tame and not afraid of humans. Actually more often than not, the wildlife was very curious to see us and considered us just as another species NOT as a predator. This is true on land as well as in the marine environment. Birdwatching enthusiasts with very big telescope lenses will immediately find out that such expensive equipment is almost useless here - a good zoom might come in handy out at sea but most species will be literally at arm's length.

Everyday was a different highlight for me as I was lucky with the weather and no boat trip got cancelled. Moreover, I had tried to vary boat trips …

Visited August/September 2018

As a nature lover, the Galapagos Islands had always been on my bucket list. And they didn't disappoint a bit.

Being quite a remote destination, I assumed that probably I'll never go back, so I decided to spend most of my two week vacation there. I wanted to visit a few diferent islands in order to see diferent species of plants and animals and it took time.

There are two ways of seeing the islands, one is on a cruise and the other one is staying a few days in some of the inhabited islands and taking day tours from there. The second option is becoming more and more popular, and it was what I did because it gives you the chance to enjoy local life.

I visited three inhabited islands, Santa Cruz, Isabela and San Cristóbal, and took several tours. I was very interested in seeing some specific species, so I read a lot before chosing the tours I wanted and booked everything online. It is not necessary, unless you are a planner or you really want to take a specific tour. I was offered all the tours while I was already there. End of August and September are considered low season there, because there is less sunlight (although it's dry season), it is less warm, the water is pretty cold and the seas are rougher. But it is a great time to see lots of marine life, and some species are …

What can you say about the Galápagos Islands that hasn’t been said a thousand times before? They are beautiful. They are important and historic. And, as the world's first UNESCO World Heritage Site, they should be at the top of nearly all travelers bucket list - they were for us.

We'd spent over 10 years hoping to visit and a some incredibly cheap last minute airfare deals made it possible. We spent a week on the Ecuador mainland visiting Quito and the volcanoes, but the islands were our real destination. We were incredible lucky to find a good deal on a one-week cruise of the northwest of the Galapagos (itinerary B), including Baltra, Santa Cruz, Genovesa, Santiago, Isabela and Fernandina.

Actually, despite its fame, these islands are infrequently visited due the remoteness of the islands and limited permits from the government that are available (and the prohibitive cost, something that was a problem for us for a long time). But for this who do visit here, they will be immensely rewarded. 

It is in these remote islands that animal evolution took a turn to...the weird. You’ve got so many unusual Galápagos Islands animals: flightless cormorant birds, warm weather penguins, lizards that swim, and many other unusual animals. These unusual animals inspired naturalist Charles Darwin’s study and eventual theory of evolution by natural selection. This important scientific discovery fundamentally changed the way we view our natural world.

We found the best way to explore this part …

The Galapagos Islands don’t need a long introduction: they were among the first batch of inscriptions in 1978 (actually it was the very first on record) and they were also a shoo-in at our Top 200 WHS. One can ‘do’ the Galapagos either via an accommodated cruise or a self-arranged land-based alternative, which has become more feasible and popular in the last 10 years. For me, the choice was clear quickly: to be ‘locked up’ on a rather small cruise ship for at least a week with strangers did not seem appealing to me at all. Also, I am not a fan of daily water-based activities like snorkelling and swimming. So I based myself in the town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz island, the largest town on the Galapagos Islands.

Puerto Ayora nowadays is a surprisingly touristy and affluent city. It isn’t unlike a Greek harbour town, with tourists milling around in the streets at all hours and daily departures by ferries to other islands. I had planned on taking two organized day tours from here: to North Seymour and Bartolomé. But unfortunately the latter got cancelled because of too few bookings. Instead of Bartolomé I eventually choose Isabela island. I spent the rest of my time on Santa Cruz itself.

Santa Cruz is far from pristine, but a good spot nonetheless to see certain species – in particular the giant tortoise. Probably the first stop for every tourist in Santa Cruz is the Charles Darwin Research …

The Galápagos Islands are a nature-lovers dream, home to giant tortoises, iguanas, sea lions, penguins, flamingos, pelicans, Darwin's famed finches, frigates, and, my favorite, the blue-footed booby. And that's just on land. Rest assured, if you are hoping to see wildlife, you will not be disappointed with the species endemic to these volcanic isles on the Equator. When planning a trip to the Galápagos, you have the choice of joining a multi-day boat tour of the islands or creating your own tour by flying or taking ferries between islands. I chose the latter when I visited the Galápagos in June. If creating your own tour, you also have to decide which islands you'll visit. I chose Santa Cruz Island, in the center of the archipelago, and Isabela Island, the largest of the islands. Santa Cruz Island is home to the Charles Darwin Research Station, on the east side of the main town of Puerto Ayora. The station is worth a leisurely visit (bring water), and also holds the UNESCO plaque for the Galápagos, the first World Heritage Site. Puerto Ayora is a great place to schedule day trips, with many options to visit other islands. Since the islands are a national park, you will always have a trained guide with you on any tour. Puerto Ayora has ferries to other islands, which is how I traveled to Isabela Island (be prepared for occasional rough seas). Both Santa Cruz and Isabela Islands have giant tortoise research stations, which are worth visiting …

We traveled to the Galapagos Islands in early September. We spent time in Quito,Ecuador on both ends of the trip. We spent 8 days in the Galapagos on a 16 passenger cozy boat. the crew were great and they only roughness we experienced was during the night travel when the boat rocked and rolled due to the Humboldt current and our speed. When you visit the islands your itinerary isn't set definitely until you sail. The govt monitors the numbers on the islands by day. We left from San Cristobal and traveled to several different islands. I was initially worried that we would not find any animals but I was amazed at their numbers and that they didn't scatter when we arrived! The birds, sea lions, penguins etc were all amazing. We had a naturalist with us and he had tons of info to share. The trip was well managed and we spent a morning in one location, had lunch and a rest period and then went out again until dinner time. The climate was warm and sunny each day but the water was extremely cold due to the current. When we went, many of the birds had their babies and that was pretty amazing. No matter when you go to the Galapagos, you are guaranteed to see a lot of birds, iguanas, sea lions, tortoises,lizards, albatross, frigates, blue footed boobies, herons, warblers, finches etc...it is nature at its' best!

The usual problem with taking “wild life” holidays is the uncertainty as to whether one will actually see the creatures one is traveling so far (and often paying so much!) to see. Over the years we have seen most of the animals we have gone to see – but it has sometimes taken several visits to do so – thus we have failed to see Gorillas in Gabon, Wolves in Alaska and Jaguars in Guyana.

A great thing about the Galapagos is that the animals WILL turn up on cue. There may not be a vast variety of species but, if an island is supposed to have a species, you will have to be very unlucky not to see it!!

And on top of that of course they are incredibly tame.

Darwin wrote at one point in his diary - 'I pushed off a branch with the end of my gun, a large hawk'.

It was wonderful to have this episode confirmed as we landed on an island and there in front of us was a Galapagos Hawk. As we approached closer and closer it did not attempt to move. We did not of course push it off its perch with a gun or anything else but there was no doubt that we could have if we had been so minded!