Hello my Boobie, Hello my Darwin, Hello Galapagos

It’s rare when I’m allowed to shoot pictures of Boobies all week with full permission.  Of course I’m talking about the “Blue-Footed” Variety the famous birds of Galapagos.

I have to admit that I pushed back and questioned, and said “no” to the Galapagos for many months.  I just knew it would be expensive, and I wasn’t convinced that value would be there.  I also have to admit then, that it IS AN INCREDIBLE PLACE, and for certain things, you have to throw “value” out the window and just enjoy a unique experience.  That said, if you want to go on a budget I have what I think is an ideal plan that I’m happy to share with you.  I give us a B-, and I think I have a grade A plan in mind as a result.

Kim justified the plane tickets from Ecuador because we decided to take a bus from Lima Peru to Guayaquil Ecuador, and skip Arequipa (and Colca Canyon).  The 28 hour bus ride did save us enough money to pay for extra plane tickets, and it really wasn’t too bad, with each seat having a personal entertainment system.  We finally got “first class” seats on the first floor, which were more comfortable for sleeping, and we had no stops in the middle of the night for people to get off/on.  Overall, as good as a long bus ride gets.

Well, we spent one night in the posh Guayaquil Hilton, and were off to Santa Cruz Island early the next morning!  What a day it was.  The airport is actually on a little barren island just south of Santa Cruz, where we were planning to stay.  The first order of business was paying our 100 bucks/person “tourism tax” to Ecuador.  You can’t get out of the airport without paying.  A funny thing happened waiting in that line… there was a guy wearing a huge backpack, with a long cardboard tube strapped to it (and sticking up).  He decided to jump out of line and started to “squat-crawl” under the barriers.  I had been watching him for about 30 seconds because he looked pensive.  Well, it became apparent that his tube was getting snagged on the barrier, and I verbally warned him as such.  He said “I know, I know…” as he continued and started to drag the barrier with him.  Finally he figured it out on his own and rectified the situation.  He made a beeline back for the plane!  He ran out of the terminal and back onto the tarmac!  I was watching as the security started to scramble, and fully expected the guy to be gang tackled (OK I was hoping).  They stopped him, and a few minutes later, he came back with his hat (I guess he left it on the plane).  Then, later as we boarded the ferry, he barged into the line cutting in front of Kim (cutting her off from the kids), to which Kim said “Excuse me sir! My kids are up there!”.  “i’m with a tour group, nothing personal!” he says.  American Tourists can be so rude! 🙂

At any rate, a quick ferry ride over to Santa Cruz (the water was an amazing turquoise), and our Taxi driver was waiting for us, with dollar signs in his eyes.  We jumped into his white, Toyota mid-sized truck, and headed North toward Puerto Ayora.

It started to drizzle, so the driver put plastic over our bags in the back.  I didn’t think much of it.  Our first stop was the craters.  There are a couple of significant volcanic craters right in the middle of the island.  We stopped and hiked around them, and it was surreal with the fog settling in and nobody else around.

The next stop was the “farm” where you can pay to go see wild land turtles and lava tubes.  It was great, they even provide rain boots to keep your shoes clean.  These turtles are amazing… up to 150 years old, and 700 lbs.  But, they are not fast movers!  The kids had a great time, just being in nature, and observing these unique creatures.  It also gave them a much needed opportunity to “run around” after 2 days of travel.

A side note in retrospect.  Kim was trying to talk with the kids in Spanish the other day and was confused about the word for pineapple (Pina with tilde), she was saying Pene (which means penis).  After we explained this to her, she have a revelation about this day, at the lava tubes.  The kids and I had run ahead to get out of the rain.  We were back at the truck, with Kim and the Taxi driver walking back alone, talking.  Kim, according to her, was trying to ask him where they grow pineapple there… asking “Donde Esta el pene?”  (where is the penis?).  That poor guy had to be confused and shaken up for while after that!  Imagine!

After that, we arrived at Puerto Ayora to our villa.  Unfortunately, the rain had pooled in the back of the truck (he parked facing downhill at the lava tunnels), and two of our bags were soaked.  He didn’t even apologize, and he charged us twice what we had been told by our host.  To her credit, she did give us a credit on airBnb.  The villa was great, close enough to downtown and the pier to walk, a beautiful property with gardens, just about perfect.  Life was good!

We went downtown for lunch, and messed around near the pier.  The kids blew off more steam.  We saw tons more wildlife, just laying around down by the pier.  The wildlife in this place is amazing.

Arrival, Land Tortoises, and Lava Tunnels:

Our plan all along was to setup camp on Santa Cruz, explore the area, and do some day trips (2 or 3).  So our first day, we booked a trip to Sata Cruz island for day 2.

We got up bright and early to be waiting to be picked up by our guide outside our property.  We waited and waited, nobody showed.  We figured since we booked last minute, they forgot, so we walked to the office.  Soon the guide showed up and we were off.

It was a nice big boat, and very stable.  The two hour cruise to Santa Fe was actually pretty nice.  We all took dramamine to be safe, and so Kim and the kids slept most of the way.  It was peaceful and relaxing.  We saw some dolphins jumping around behind/beside the boat at one point.

Our first stop was in a beautiful little bay with a nice beach at one side.  The entire beach was covered body-to-body with sea lions.  The guide told us this was the beach for “families”… the mated sea lions (dominant males with their harem) and cubs.  The cubs were playing in the surf, and would come back to feed… walking from female to female trying for a nipple.  If they got the wrong mother, the mother would growl and bite, and the baby would move to the next.  It was pretty funny, until we saw the dead sealion in the surf, and the guide told us her babies would die, because nobody would feed them.  It’s a hard life!

The next beach was for the “bachelors”, the younger or less dominant males waiting for their chance.  We saw a cool Pelican there resting.  He had a huge lump in his throat.  The guide said he ate something a little to big, and it was stuck.  He had to wait until it passed into his gut before he’s be able to fly again.  We saw him later, and he was back hunting for fish.  Really interesting looking bird.

We walked on and saw several more birds, some really cool cactus trees that are only found here, and huge land iguanas. (again only found on Santa Fe Island).  After that, we went back to the boat, had lunch, and went snorkeling.

Though short, the snorkeling was the highlight.  We literally swimming with baby sea lions.  There were cool fish, coral, and the water was gorgeous, but it all paled by comparison.  It’s something I’ll never forget, those cute little guys buzzing around us in the water.  We also saw lots of Blue Footed Boobies too.  We were super excited and took 500 pictures.  We didn’t realize we’d see them everywhere we went!

It was a good trip, and I enjoyed watching the kids soaking it all in, including the calming cruise back at the end of the day.  My kids love nature!

Santa Fe Island:

Isabella island was our next adventure, and the highlight here was snorkeling with the Penguins.  It seems odd to me that penguins exist to close to the equator, but they do.  This one was just OK… the boat was small, the guides were bad, but food was OK.  What we learned here is, you get what you pay for in terms of the cost of the day trips/cruises.  If i had to do it again, I’d stay on Isabella a couple of days, and explore it on my own.

The highlight of this trip was something that happened to Kane and I while snorkeling.  We were tooling long, looking at this huge crevice under the water.  Kane was asking me to dive down into the crevice.  Just about then, the group in front of us (about 20 feet away) yelled “shark!”.  We made a slow progression toward then, and about 5 seconds later a large white-tipped reef shark (striking looking creature), about 6-7 feet long swam slowly toward us, and dipped down directly below us.  It was something we will never forget for sure.

Included in this gallery are pictures from our trip to “las Grietas”.  This is a popular spot in Santa Cruz where we stayed.  It’s a volcanic formation that essentially crated a contained/filtered brackish water pool.  The fish that live there are born and never escape.  It’s a beautiful little spot, and to Kane’s enjoyment, you can climb the cliffs and jump into the water (it’s very deep and crystal clear).

Isabella Island:

Another place we visited on Santa Cruz was “tortuga bay”.  We didn’t see any turtles there, but we did see the nests.  It was a great time, relaxing and playing at the beach.  The only issue was Kane got a migrane, and really struggled with the walk home (it was about a 45 minute walk).

Tortuga Bay:

Our last day trip at Galapagos was to North Seymour island.  I think we saved the best for last!  First we stopped at a beach with an old shipwreck, where we saw:  a shipwreck (Duh), pink flamingos, eagle rays, stingrays, ghost crabs, turtle nests.  We then got to go snorkeling in a really nice spot on Santa Cruz, where we swam with a sea turtle!  He was swimming and eating under the water and it was amazing.

Then we went to North Seymour, which was all about wildlife and mostly birds.  Our guide was amazing, knowledgeable, with good english.  It was a great tour, and so many amazing animals.  A great way to end our trip here.

The last day, we got up early, cabbed back to the airport pier, ferry to the airport, and flew back to Guayaqil.  From there we took a taxi to Cuenca!

I was frustrated with the prices of things at Galapagos, but I’ve gotten over it.  I’m glad we went, and being able to snorkel with wild and unique animals was a big part of it.  The kids will never forget this place!

North Seymour and Departure: