About a month and a half ago, as I was removing various undesirables from my diet, I was skimming over my weekly Travelzoo email when I came across the following:
The Galapagos Islands have been on my travel bucket list for a while and lately I've started treating Travelzoo deals as an electronic message from fate, a digital sign pointing to a distant land I've been meaning to visit. For the most part, my desire to visit the places on my list is evenly distributed; I don't prioritize one over any of the others. Given this attitude, it makes sense to me to pick my next destination based on whatever's on sale at the moment. At the very least, the money saved from doing this a few times could easily pay for another trip.$1459 -- Galapagos Islands 7-Night Land Package, Save $690
http://www.travelzoo.com/top20/63788138-1426683
Source: Red Mangrove Galapagos & Ecuador Lodges
After researching flights, dates, and Ecuador for a bit, I called up Red Mangrove to get more details. While chatting with the travel agent, she informed me that the agency could take care of booking the flight from mainland Ecuador to Galapagos, which would cost $400 to $500. I thanked her for all the information and gave her my email, preparing myself for a long afternoon of airfare hunting. Initial searches revealed $1000 round-trip tickets from San Francisco to either of the major cities in Ecuador (Quito or Guayaquil), resulting in an airfare total of $1500. On a whim, I searched for round-trip itineraries from San Francisco to Galapagos, which would cut out the middle man (the travel agency). The total round-trip cost if I booked all the flights myself? $880. It was cheaper to go to Galapagos, which requires going through mainland Ecuador, than it was to go to mainland Ecuador itself.
I don't understand a lot of things about the air travel industry (like why airlines don't load people onto flights back to front always), but this was just baffling. I tiptoed to my dresser, grabbed my wallet, and entered my credit card number into the American Airlines website to quietly secure the potentially erroneously priced airfare. Once American confirmed the flights, I booked the package through Red Mangrove and started making a list of things I'd need for my trip.
Day 1
Due to how the flights are scheduled, traveling from the west coast of the United States to Galapagos (or vice versa) will result in a long layover in Ecuador. I left San Francisco at the crack of dawn and flew all day, first to Miami, then to Guayaquil, the largest city in Ecuador. By the time I made it out of the airport and to my hotel (which was included as part of the Travelzoo package), it was about 9:00 in the evening and I was exhausted, even though I did nothing all day except sit in chairs and stand in lines. Perhaps spending a large portion of the day reading Fear and Loathing left me mentally hungover after imbibing too much literary mescaline and ether. I had just enough energy to order room service, shower, set my alarm, and pass out.
Day 2
The next morning I grabbed a quick breakfast and a ride back to the airport. Even though the islands are part of Ecuador, traveling to Galapagos is similar to traveling to another country: there are immigration and customs checks (and a couple entry fees). Airport security was delightfully un-American though; I didn't have to remove my shoes, hoodie, or belt, didn't have to present my baggie of liquids, and I don't think I even fully emptied my pockets. By conservative estimates, it took me about thirty-seven seconds to go through security, start to finish. To be fair, I don't think Ecuador has a problem of terrorists traveling to the Galapagos Islands. I've never heard of an extremist group declaring jihad over the foreign policies of blue-footed boobies.
The flight to Galapagos from Guayaquil is only two hours and I was surprised that it was such a large plane (a 737). For some reason, I had it in my head that I'd be on a smaller aircraft, but in retrospect I clearly wasn't considering that the islands are a popular tourist spot, both for Westerners and Ecuadorians. After the plane landed and we all went through immigration and customs, I was quickly ushered onto a very crowded coach by one of the Red Mangrove staff members. A hot twenty-minute bus ride got us from the airport (which is on the island of Baltra) to the Itabaca Channel, which separates Baltra from the island of Santa Cruz. The channel is only 400 meters wide (at its narrowest point) and water taxis shuttle people back and forth all day. I was already sweating through my t-shirt, which was to become a common theme for the week.
After crossing the channel, we took a half-hour taxi ride through Santa Cruz to get to Puerto Ayora, the largest town and tourist hub of Santa Cruz (and all the islands, for that matter). All the taxis on the island are white Toyota pickup trucks and it's very common to see locals (often mothers and their children) hailing these taxis on the side of the road. (And by "the road", I mean the one road on the island.) Road safety laws appear to be somewhat lax in the Galapagos, which means the truck bed is fair game for passengers. The drive through Santa Cruz was very peaceful: lots of very lush, green plant life everywhere, interrupted occasionally by small towns, individual houses, or workers clearing brush from the side of the road. (Interesting side note: gasoline in Galapagos, and Ecuador in general, is $1.50 a gallon.)
After reaching the lodge, the other guests and I checked in, dropped our bags off at our rooms, and grabbed some lunch on the back patio, which overlooks the water and serves as a small, unofficial home for various species. Iguanas lay out on the deck all day long, crabs scurry over the rocks by the water (and scurry across the water itself, which is quite a sight), birds dive bomb into the water to catch fish, and two seals (a mother and her child) have commandeered the far end of the deck, including the blue patio furniture.
The patio was the location of a lot of my good photos because iguanas and seals make such perfect photographic subjects: they're novel, visually interesting, and don't move around a lot, even when people get close to them.
After the photo shoot, a few of us met with Juan, our Galapagos naturalist guide. Visitors are not allowed to visit most of the islands without being accompanied by an official guide, so Juan would become our new friend for the next few days. We spent the rest of the afternoon at Garrapatero Beach, which was perfect for sunbathing and swimming.
On our way back to the lodge, we stopped off at a part of town that is set up for fisherman returning to shore with their daily catches. At about 5:00 every day, the fisherman unload their fish and cut them up, much to the intrigue of seals, pelicans, tourists, and even locals. The seals and pelicans beg for (or try to steal) scraps while snapping at one another. One of the little girls takes it upon herself to hose down the animals in an attempt to placate or instigate them (I'm not sure which). All the while, tourists circle around, shooting away with their cameras (myself included). It's a fishy battle royale with media coverage.
Day 3
The first stops in the morning were various natural formations created by magma from ancient volcanic explosions. There are two very large craters, "Los Gemelos" ("The Twins"), which are collapsed lava chambers that have since been overrun by jungle growth and animals. We walked through one of the underground lava tunnels, which was carved out many years ago by sideways-traveling magma.
The next stop was a private reserve that serves as home to many free-roaming giant tortoises. Like the iguanas and the seals back at the lodge, the tortoises made fantastic photographic subjects, mainly due to their lack of velocity. The rule in the islands is that all tourists are to maintain a distance of at least two meters from all animals and the tortoises appear to be used to that behavior. They didn't seem to mind all the humans wandering around and went about their daily business of roaming and grazing.
After lunch, we took a two-hour boat ride to Floreana, one of the smaller islands and possibly the least populated place I've ever been; a total of 120 people live on the island. The environmentalist in me was fascinated to learn that 80% of the island's electricity needs (including tourists) is handled by a pretty small solar panel array. After dropping off our bags and quickly changing, we hiked to a small bay for swimming and snorkeling.
It was here that I had my epitomic Galapagos experience. Only three of us went snorkeling, and after the other two swam off in a different direction, I found myself alone in the ocean, about a football field's length from the shore. While floating and taking everything in, I heard a loud "breathing out" noise behind me. I turned around to see the head of a sea turtle that had just surfaced and was about to dive again. After playing cat and mouse for a few minutes, with the turtle repeatedly diving and surfacing, I was able to get close enough that it would swim underneath me when it dove underwater. Needless to say, swimming with a sea turtle in the wild is a pretty cool experience.
As dusk approached, we hiked back to the lodges to clean up and enjoy some wine on the patio at sunset. It was around this time that one of the lodge employees noticed some baby birds (most likely Darwin's finches) in a nest in the crook of a cactus.
After a briefing of the next day's activities, we went into "town" (I use the term very generously) to have dinner at Lelia's, a restaurant that is owned by descendants of the first Ecuadorian family to settle on Floreana. In addition to the usual staples of rice, vegetables, and fish, we enjoyed fried yucca and tree tomato juice. After dinner, we went back to the lodges and spent some time stargazing with the help of an astronomy app on Juan's tablet. Interesting observations included an upside-down Orion, seeing Jupiter with the naked eye, and the Southern Cross, which is not visible in most of the northern hemisphere.
Day 4
After getting dressed and packing, we went back to Lelia's for breakfast, which included blue eggs, coffee, papaya, granola, yogurt, bread, and guava marmalade; all the food came from crops and farms on Floreana. Looking back, the two meals at Lelia's were quietly some of my favorite memories from the trip. Even though the family didn't speak English, they were incredibly gracious and the food was excellent. It was a very different and satisfying experience to enjoy varied, healthy, and delicious foods that came from farms only a few miles away in a place with barely more than a hundred people. It was local, organic, and farm-to-table without being pretentious. That breakfast actually led me to rediscover the simple joy of a bowl of granola, yogurt, and fruit, which I've now incorporated into my daily routine. And even though I'm not a coffee drinker, I found myself drinking coffee every morning because, hey, it's South America. It seemed like the appropriate thing to do.
Once breakfast was finished, we hopped into an open-air bus and rode up to the highlands of Floreana, where Juan told us stories about the interesting human history of the island. Highlights include pirates, several mysterious deaths, and a sneaky Irishman who managed to escape the island after being marooned there for two years. We visited some of the pirates' caves and the island's only source of fresh water, a slow drip through the rocks that is enough to sustain the island's entire population.
Also up in the highlands is a large, outdoor enclosure housing another species of tortoises. It was here that we got to see some breeding (this being the end of mating season). Well, "attempted breeding" might be more accurate. As we walked through the jungle, we came across a male pursuing a female with fire in his loins and passion in his eyes. Or maybe malice in his eyes, it's hard to tell with tortoises. Cue the courting music.
All the tourists intently waiting for some live-action tortoise porn (again, myself included) noticed that the female had wedged herself awkwardly between a couple of rocks and a tree, almost as though she was not appreciative of this gentleman's advances. The scene started to look more like tortoise rape as the male went through his mounting procedure.
After several minutes of unsuccessfully mating with his unwilling partner, the male dismounted and left, clearly disgusted, even going so far as to give her the stinkeye and partially step on her. If I spoke tortoise, I would have said: "It's alright buddy, we've all been there. Get 'em next time tiger." Since I don't speak tortoise, I took a bunch of photos and laughed a lot.
You may turn off the Eric Carmen now if you like.
With the display of tortoise sexuality now anticlimactically concluded, we left for the dock to embark on a two-hour boat ride to the island of Isabela. As we waited for the navy to iron out some bureaucratic issue, I wandered around the dock, where there were plenty more iguanas, seals, and birds.
After lunch at the lodge on Isabela, we went on a bay tour that included bird-watching from the water taxi, iguana and shark-watching while on foot, and more snorkeling. We saw some penguins and blue-footed boobies from the boat, but we didn't get close enough for me to get any worthwhile shots. While some of us were snorkeling, a single penguin stood stoically on the rocks by the water, intently studying the ominous storm clouds on the horizon, so I consider that mental snapshot a win.
In a small, natural channel bounded by tall rock walls, we saw a few white-tipped reef sharks. Most were resting, but a couple swam about.
The rest of our hike meandered through lichen-covered lava fields, where we saw lots of marine iguanas, including one that was a bit past its prime.
The evening on Isabela was perhaps the most pleasant and relaxing of all the nights. The lodge had several hammocks strung up to palm trees, the beach in front of the lodge was gorgeous, there was a bar at the end of the pier only a short walk away, and the breeze coming off the water was cool and strong enough that I could sleep with the windows open and no air conditioning. One of life's little joys is falling asleep and waking up to the sounds of crashing waves and the wind blowing through palm trees.
Day 5
The next morning, a few of us went out in search of more wildlife. We found half a dozen flamingos in a small pond and then visited the breeding center on Isabela, whose logo is quite exceptional (see below). Tortoises are bred at the center and released into the wild when they have reached a certain maturity. The center also serves as a hospital; injured animals found in the wild are rehabilitated and eventually released. This trip turned out to be an unexpected delight because we arrived at the center just at feeding time. The younger tortoises (less than eight years old) are kept in enclosures by the dozens and are surprisingly active. After the keeper tossed in food (a plant known as elephant-ear), the juveniles would literally crawl all over each other to feed. The dogpile (tortoisepile?) was really funny to watch and reached the height of three tortoises in some places.
After a walk back to the lodge along the beach and another delicious lunch, we headed back to Santa Cruz on another two-hour boat ride. Once back, we walked up the road just a bit to the Charles Darwin Research Station, which includes another breeding center. This center wasn't as impressive (for visitors) as the center on Isabela, but we did get to see some land iguanas, the pen where Lonesome George lived (until his death last year), and two pairs of grunting copulating tortoises. It was an appropriate conclusion to the guided portion of my stay on the islands.
Days 6 and 7
The final two days of my trip were a bonus of the Travelzoo package. They were completely open and unscheduled and I spent a lot of my time hiking, taking the water taxi, and visiting local beaches for swimming and snorkeling.
One of the popular local spots is Tortuga Bay, an inlet that is home to a lot of protected wildlife but also has very calm waters for swimming; the waves were so small that it felt more like a lake than a bay. It's one hell of a trek to get there though. From the lodge, the hike takes more than an hour each way in the equatorial sun, with almost no shade and no breeze. (I later learned from Juan that an inside joke is that Tortuga Bay is sometimes called "Torture Bay", for good reason.) After my unexpected death march through the jungle, jumping into the water felt fantastic and after a little while I found myself swimming with a sea turtle again.
For the rest of my stay, I wandered through Puerto Ayora, visiting shops and taking photos. During my Saturday evening stroll, I came across a group of locals dressed in very colorful outfits dancing to traditional music.
Day 8
The final day of my trip was all travel: pickup truck taxi, water taxi, bus, and several airplanes. I had a long layover in Guayaquil before my redeye to Miami and ended up touring part of the city with a couple women I met in the airport. I left my camera (and almost all of my other valuables) in an airport locker because Guayaquil has a bit of a reputation for crime, but any photos I would have taken wouldn't have compared to my photos from the islands.
Funny story: while I was changing in the airport bathroom, a cockroach jumped out of my bag and ran off. If mainland Ecuador is devastated by a new invasive species of cockroach in the coming months or years, feel free to point the finger at me.
Final Thoughts
The Galapagos Islands have a reputation for being fascinating and unique and for very good reason. Even though this trip was carefully organized, scheduled, and chaperoned, it still felt like an adventure in a remote part of the world that has been minimally touched by the human existence. Even normally mundane activities like transportation became exciting because it involved a pickup truck in the jungle, or an open-air bus on a gravel road, or a fast boat in the open water.
This seems like a good time to acknowledge the wonderful hospitality of Red Mangrove, who made this trip really fantastic. The entire staff is helpful and incredibly friendly and the accommodations were much nicer than what I expected considering I was heading to a remote archipelago, five hundred miles from the mainland. When I searched my email for "Red Mangrove" while writing this piece, I noticed that it appeared in Travelzoo emails every few months. If you're interested in booking through Red Mangrove, keep an eye out for that Travelzoo deal.
I also have to give some praise for all the meals (which were included in the package). If I didn't lose any weight from all my activity on this trip, it's because I couldn't help myself at mealtime. I expected a healthy and tasty South American diet and was not disappointed: rice, potatoes, lots of vegetables, lots of fresh fruit, some soy, meat (obviously not for me), exotic fruit juices, and even some phenomenal desserts (like passion fruit mousse). The fruit juices are actually one of the things I miss most. I lost track of how many different juices I had in all of Ecuador, but I can recall pineapple, guava banana, blackberry, passion fruit, and tree tomato, not to mention all the tropical fruit blends.
My take on Galapagos is that you can make of your trip what you want. You can go just for scuba diving, or just for hiking/swimming/snorkeling, or just to see the wildlife, or even just to go to some really nice beaches, but you'll probably get the most out of your trip by doing a little bit of everything. Pay some careful attention to the Galapagos calendar so you know what you'll be getting yourself into (for instance, there is a rainy season). April and May are supposedly the best months to go, but every month of the year offers something unique.
My advice comes down to this: if you've ever seriously thought about going to Galapagos, do it.
Full photo album: Galapagos Islands
