Over the Easter weekend, Branden and I went somewhere I had been wanting to go for years — the Galapagos Islands. Ever since I learned about Charles Darwin in high school biology (or was it first year university?), I wanted to check out the exotic, endemic animals on the islands.
We booked a 9-day group trip through G Adventures, called Galapagos Adventure. It would be our third trip with them after Vietnam and Morocco.
Pre-tour & Day 1 – Quito
We first arrived in Quito, Ecuador, which is part of the main land.
Upon landing, we were extremely, extremely sleep-deprived — on the edge of delirious. Branden was a bit cranky haha. All we did was check into our hotel, get Dominoes pizza and go to sleep early.
The next day, we went on a free walking tour of the city, and it was excellent. The tour guide told us about the history of Ecuador, the economic collapse that led to them using U.S currency, and why gas and public transport are so cheap.
For dinner, we went to a vegan restaurant. One of the specials they had on, which Branden ordered, was Fanesca (left). Our walking tour guide had recommended it and said was a speciality eaten only at Easter time. I had a dish of lentils, rice, salad, fried plantain, and seitan.
Day 2 – San Cristobal Island
The next day, we got up extremely early to catch a morning flight to San Cristobal.
We had to pay $20 USD cash at the airport for a Transit Control Card in order to go to the islands, in addition to $100 as a park entry fee.
When we got to our hotel, the staff greeted us with some delicious strawberry juice. They also offered us these free bananas which for some reason I loved picking off this bush.
Right away, we took a walk around the town with the group. I think we all expected to have to take a bit of effort to find the animals, but to our delight they were actually all over the place.
The first animals we spotted were sea lions — they were in the water, sleeping on rocks, and some had even escaped the beach and where sleeping on the sidewalk and around benches.
We also saw marine iguanas and crabs mingling with the sea lions.
None of the animals were the least bit phased about us humans!
Day 3 – San Cristobal Island
The next day, we took a speed boat to Kicker Rock to go snorkelling. The previous day, we had a “trial run” but didn’t see anything in the water. I was really excited because it was supposed to be THE place to go for snorkelling.
On the way there, we encountered the most amazing thing — dolphins! They swam underneath and in front of the boat and were playfully leaping out of the water. It is definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me, and maybe the best animal encounter I’ve ever had.
Above water, the rock looks quite boring but just beneath the water’s surface, there is tons of life around the rock. Some people in our group had gone on an earlier tour and said they even saw a few hammerhead sharks.
I really regret not bringing my GoPro into the water. I was nervous about losing it and that it would inhibit my ability to swim cause I would have had to hold onto it, but I missed a few photo ops.
My favorite memory from that excursion was swimming alongside a sea turtle for a good 5-10 minutes. It just happened to be travelling in the same direction and speedaround the rock that we were and didn’t mind us at all!
There was also a funny sea lion that was just floating with one fin in the air, for “temperature regulation”, according to our guide.
Here’s a photo from when we came back from snorkelling. There was a funny sea lion sleeping on a bench.
But in this photo you can also see how badly sunburned Branden was. It was a double sunburn from Quito and one from that day of snorkelling. We had bought reef-safe sunscreen but didn’t realize it wasn’t waterproof! My legs, forehead and arms also got burned.
teekirol 