Sorry for the big blog, but Galapagos is amazing 🙌

14 February
We left our hostel in Quito early in the morning and flew to the Galapagos Islands. We have really been looking forward to this trip, hoping to see some exclusive animals and dive with sharks!

As it name assumes, the Galapagos Islands is a collection of small islands. There are 3 "big" and populated islands: Santa Cruz, Isabella and San Christobal. 2 of them have a airport. We flew 1 hour back in time and landed about 12:00 on the island Santa Cruz, yeaaah back in the sun, 28 degrees! We took a taxi to the "best galapagos" hostel, that name isn't quite right though. The hostel was pretty far away out of centre. When we arrived "Anna" the owner quickly showed us a map of Santa Cruz and what to do. We then headed up to the 3th floor, where our privat room was at with a single bed and double bed. We also had a kitchen in the room, a lot of space.

In the afternoon we walked 20 minutes to the town's centre and at the pier we saw some cool animals. There were iguanas and sea lions chilling. We also saw Pelikans and crabbies. It was very nice to just see this in the wild. After taking some pictures we went to a diveshop and booked 2 dives for the day after tomorrow. We paid 160 dollar for it, which is a good price in the Galapagos.

In the afternoon we took a 5 min water taxi to the beach, Playa de los almanes. The beach wasn't so special so we kept walking and passed by a saltmine. It looked very interesting with pink water. After awhile we arrived at Las Grietas. This is a small canyon which has crystal clear water in it. We rented 2 snorkels for 10 dollar together and headed in to the water, shit this was cold 😜
After some swimming in the clear water, we saw a big parrot fish and later a whole school of big fishes.
For valentine we went to a restaurant and had dinner while Latin Musik was played👌

15 february.
The next day we woke up and wanted to get breakfast, since it was included. We were downstairs at 8.45am and Anna said breakfast wasn't possible. What!? It's only between 7 and 8 she said. Well we didn't knew anything about that. Instead we got breakfast in town and then headed to Tortuga Bay. It was a 45 minute walk from town, which was worth it. We arrived at this white sand beach, blue waters and.. Iguanas, chilling at the beach! We walked to the end of the beach and rented a kayak there for 1.5 hours.
In the evening we ate fajita's and chicken at a nice place and enjoyed the happy hour☺

16 february
Today was diving day! We started the day by eating breakfast in the hostel. This time we got some breakfast and the eggs with toast were good. After filling our stomachs we went to the dive center. There we met Lisa from Sweden. She's an adopted south Korean woman who looked like 22. She was 36 actually and was travelling with her husband and 5 year old daughter, wow inspiring!

When we arrived at the dive site "Gordon rocks" the visibility was very poor unfortunately. We did see a lot of cool stuff though. I saw my first shark(s) while diving. It's so special to just see hammerhead or white tip sharks swimming by. We also saw a big 3 meter manta ray and alot of other fishes.
We want to do another dive somewhere and hope for better visibility to make the experience perfect.

17 february: cruising !!
Today we made our way to the airport to get on to the cruise. It's a 5 day cruise and we are going to see the west part of Galapagos (Isabella). At 13:00 we were on our (small) ship "Golondrina 1". We are with 15 people and most of them are young travelers. We settled in quickly and the room was good for us. Unfortunately 2 seperate beds, but other then that the room was perfect.

We started by going to a beautiful beach with a lot of sea lions. We first walked a bit on the island and got closer to them. Later we went in the water and even snorkeled with the sea lions! It was such a amazing experience. They really like to play and come very close, they are so fast though. One actually softly "bit" Nicole because he wanted to play. We also saw a lot of fishes and I even saw a white tip shark, while snorkeling wow!
After that we went back to the main boat and had m dinner with alot of vegetables. In the evening we socialized a bit and I slept on the deck. The sky was completely clear and I saw countless stars, what a feeling to fall asleep like that... 🌌🌟

18 february
We started today with a 1 hour "panga' boat tour. We were sitting in a little boat (they call it panga) while the guide (Milton) explained some things about the wildlife. We saw interesting birds like the famous Galapagos "boobie", which has blue feet. We also saw several Pelikans. After that we went snorkeling at the same place and we quickly saw some turtles. At one point we saw 3 turtles close to eachother. We also saw a punguin and sea lion passing by, so cool!

After lunch we snorkeled at another place and swam with iguanas, yes they can swim! These iguanas are the only species in the world that can swim. Milton told me there are around 300.000 iguanas living on Galapagos. Also at this place we swam with turtles and sea lions again😊
We then headed to main land and did a walking tour there. We saw hundreds of iguanas chilling on the black lava stones, what an impressive sight! There were not only alive iguanas, we saw several carcasses as well. We also saw colorful red crabs and lazy sealions. The guide told us something about the wildlife and the history of it. He's a cool guide and has been living on Galapagos for 24 years, he really knows alot.
In the evening we toasted all together with sangria and had a good dinner. The food on board is really good and also healthy👌

19 february
Last night we booth slept in our cabin and slept like a baby☺ After breakfast Milton gave a briefing and today we hope to see Tortoises, land iguanas and.. Pinguins! Yes the Galapagos has his own unique "tropical penguin". We went with the panga to another island and had a "wet landing" on the beach. We left our snorkel gear at there and started walking. Already after a few minutes we saw some turtoises 🐢, they really look old, like from the dinosaur time. Only a few meter further we spotted the land iguana. This one has some differences comparing with the marine iguana. This one has a different color, shape of the mouth and is a bit bigger.

When we got back to the starting point we got ready for snorkeling and went in the water. We first saw a cormorant bird. Due to evolution, this bird lost his ability to fly. Therefore it is now a good swimmer. We saw one going under water and it was so fast, like a punguin. Also this time we saw a lot of sea turtles and parrot fishes. Nicole also saw a small galapagos shark in the distance.

After lunch time and chilling on the deck we went out with the panga again and went to a salt water lake. Milton told us something about the history of Galapagos. Galapagos was colonised in the 1800's, but the Spanish people already discovered it in 1535. Also other European countries visited the galapagos, but weren't interested because they couldn't find fresh water at the time.

Later in the afternoon we went snorkeling again and Nicole's dream came true, she saw pinguins! They were so funny and 2 of them actually fell in the water. We also saw seaturtles, sea stars and swam with sea lions.
Back at the boat the captain let us jump of the highest deck, wohoo!
In the evening we played some card game with a group and Nicole and me watches the stars before going to bed, it was an amazing day again in the Galapagos🙏

20 february
We started today early at 6:00 and went with the panga to the island "Santiago". We walked on this island and saw some new things like fur seals a bird. We also saw small galapagos snakes hiding in a rock. While walking close by the water, we saw white tip sharks very close by. They were around 60 cm and feeding along the shore.

Later in the morning we went to a island surrounded by beautiful blue waters. We walked around there and saw some baby fur seals, iguanas and a pinguin hunting for some small fishes. Milton told us something about how the lavatunnels where formed and that the pinguins use them as a home now.

Back on board we got ready for snorkeling into the fresh, but clear blue water. We snorkeled for about 40 minutes and saw a lot of fishes. I saw 3 white tip sharks and found a big lobster. There were also beautiful starfishes on the bottom.
After lunch we had no more activities planned and we set sail to Puerto Ayora. We chilled on the deck while the sun was shining. The weather has been great the last days, no rain and hardly any clouds as well. While chilling on the deck, I read a book about mindfulness. The Dutch couple on board had a Dutch written pocketbook with them with funny facts about the Dutch language and I also read something in that.

After watching a nice sunset, we had our last dinner. The food was really good and healthy on the boat, every day we got something different. The trip in general was amazing. Milton, our tourguide, is so passionate about his work and he showed us a lot of cool stuff. We've seen iguanas, sea lions, giant turtles, sharks, a lot types of birds and even tropical pinguins.. wow, where can you find this somewhere else? No where! The tour was definitely worth it 😊

21 february
After breakfast we got on to land in Puerto Ayora again. We went to the Charles Darwin center where they hold turtles for investigation and reproduction. Because the humans killed so many turtles in Galapagos, they were about to extinct. There was one specie were only 2 males and 12 females remained. The reproduction programm they started in the center to safe this specie is very succesfull and the turtle population is growing.
Charles Darwin spend 5 weeks in Galapagos during his 5 year journey on sea. He investigated the animals kibing there and made reports. He is now like a legend of the Galapagos and several things are named after him.

Afte having lunch we said goodbye to the people we were on board with and took the 2 hour speedboat to another island: San Cristobal. We stayes at the San Francisco Hostel for 25 dollar per night, which is a good price in Galapagos! After checking in we booked a dive for the day after tomorrow, since everything was full already. Around sunset we went to the Golden Bay, where we met Pierre, 37yo French guy. We also met Giuseppe there who owns an Italian restaurant in town. We socialized, drank some beers and had 2 free pizza's, since there was a nail in one of them 😂
Since 3 days I'm having ear pain and keeps increasing, luckily I got ear drops with me (gift from Nicole's sister).


22 February
We woke up at 5:30 to go fishing! After eating some muesli and yoghurt we went to the guy at the travel agency were we booked the trip. We went fishing with his father (local). On the way to our first fishing spot we saw a huge back of whale coming up, wow A WHALE 🐳
We saw some large schools of tuna and caught some of them, also 2 barracuda's and some fishes deep from the bottom. I paid 100 dollar for 3.5 hours fishing, it's very cheap in comparison to others, since it was just with a local guy.
When we were back on shore we brought our fish to a restaurant where they prepared it. The taste was amazing, it was like Dutch "gebakken vis". It only costed us 5 dollar! (but paid 100 for fishing 😅)

After lunch we decided to go to the hospital, since my ear pain wasn't getting better. The doctor looked I'm it and said it was the way to my ear had a inflammation, not the membrane. She gave me some ibuprofen and a injection in my butt for it, which Nicole found really funny😷 I hate needles!!!!! When everything was done I asked the doctor to write down everything clearly for my insurance. Then she said, no worries, it's free, HUH? I still don't understand why, but that's awesome!

In the evening we went to Giuseppe's restaurant and met Pierre, Maria, a Portuguese guy, a woman from Hawaii (65 yo and looked like 40), and a Ecuadorian guy. We ate some food, drank some cocktails and had had a lovely evening with this people.

23 February
Today we gave diving another try and went to Kicker Rock, another hotspot for divers to see sharks. Unfortunately we had bad luck, the visability was again not that good because of current. We still saw some sharks, hammerheads, turtles and 2 Korean people going deep down way to fast :o after the second dive we could do some snorkeling and then we saw a lot of sharks and a manta ray.
This time the dive company was also not that good and we had to share the small boat with snorklers. On the way to Kicker Rock we saw again a whale next to a group of really big tunas.
In the evening we visited Giuseppe's restaurant where we still had to try his pasta. It was worth it, delicious! We could also use his WiFi and booked a flight and bus that will bring us to Lima.

The next day we took a taxi and went to the "Highlands". We first stopped at "El Junco", a fresh water lake. Because of the fresh water it was possible to populate this island. After walking around the lake we went to a turtle breading center, like which we seen in Santa Cruz. Our last stop was Playa Chino, a beautiful beach but unfortunately with alot of musquitos, so we left quickly.

25 february
Today was our third and last dive day, we decided to do one more and hope for good visability and more sharks. When we decended in the water, we saw a huuuge school of fishes. It looked like a black, slowly moving cloud, insane! The rest of the dive was nothing special exept the end: a pretty large school of sharks swam arround us. Different kind of sharks and even a hammerhead. They were curious and came close to our fins. Finally we got to see sharks from close by!
The second dive was almost same like the others, nice, but nothing very exciting.
In the evening we drunk a beer and watched our last sunset in galapagos. and guess where we ate later? Si, Giuseppe's restaurant (we still had to try his pizza...😜)

We had a wonderful time in Galapagos. The wildlife and it's rawness make this a big highlight of our trip. I'm sure, one day, we will return here again. For now on, we are getting ready to start our Amazon Jungle experience in Iquitos (Peru) 🕷🐍

Geschreven door FrankArends