Galapa What? Galapagos, Amazing!!

Timon van den Berg
May 17, 2019
22 min read

Soon after we left Ipiales, we reached the much-bespoken border crossing between Colombia and Ecuador. Ever since we’ve arrived in Colombia, people spoke to us about the long queues on both sides. Since we stayed close to the border, we arrived in the early morning. Of course we had already seen many Venezuelans on the road, so we were not surprised to meet many of them at the border. Most of them travel with only a piece of paper they received when they entered Colombia, since that’s all they have to identify themselves. It took us about two hours on both sides of the border to get through, but people are unbelievable friendly, something they can learn from in Central and North America. Something that we noticed was that kids from Venezuela need to be vaccinated before they were allowed into Ecuador. Overall not great to see this human migration, but from the other hand good to experience for once just to understand what they are actually talking about in the news. It felt like there is only so little we could do about, and we actually felt a little ashamed. Two stupid gringo’s with our car spending already 7 months on the road, doing whatever we liked. I guess what we ended up doing was, and is, to listen better to the stories of these people. Many times after crossing the border we have been in contact with people from Venezuela, in taxi’s, in parks, hostels and more. You know what’s painful; they admire us for what we do, traveling and enjoying life. They are so eager to know more about our travel activities and are unbelievable friendly. You know, it seems people in the South are more open minded to immigration anyway, but when you have 3 million people entering your country, I can assume it becomes a little too much. Most locals say in Colombia and Ecuador, that the main problem is that they don’t have more jobs to offer. But, that’s really the only concern we have heard them speaking about.

So besides listing better to their stories, I think we also realized a little better how privileged we are with the fact that we can do this road trip. While some people leave their families behind without a choice, we do it by choice 😊! No that is a bad joke, we miss you too family and friends (sometimes).

Our first stop in Ecuador was “Finca Sommerwind”, a German owned campground somewhere in the North of Ecuador. The roads are simply of outstanding quality in Ecuador, so it only took us an hour and a half to reach the campground of owner Hans. Hans is famous in the overlander community. It seems everyone traveling in this part of the world knows him. Also, he is the only one in Ecuador with an official campground license. Anyway, since he wasn’t there when we arrived we decided to find ourselves a spot and just build up our tent. The whole campground was full with people from Germany, Swiss and other European countries. Most of them had shipped their campers to central America and used this campground as a base from where they explored other parts of the northern part of the continent. We made a quick trip to the center for some groceries, and on the way back we saw a carwash and decided to give our car a quick cleaning. The owner of the carwash takes good care of his clients, he offers his clients a fridge with different types of beers for while you wait for your car to being cleaned. Where in the Netherlands you would be happy with a cup of coffee, here you’re offered a beer!

The next day we kept ourselves quiet on the campground, the weather is good and we traveled a lot after leaving Cali. So it’s a relaxing day. The world-famous Hans also bakes his own bread so we decided to buy one. It’s nice to have a bread which isn’t sweet for a change. At night the biergarten really comes to live and we order ourselves some “Curry Wurstel”! Of course you cannot eat Curry Wurst without a half a liter of beer, and of course if you are in good company of other campers one becomes two, and two might have become three.

One of the more touristy activities in the region is the Saturday market in Otavalo, of course it’s mainly for tourists and the prices are high, but the weather is nice and we are new to the country so it’s a good place to start and learn more about Ecuador. As said by people who visited the market before it’s enormous and touristy. But still we find a lot of food stands with local traditions. Also there are a lot of alpaca products available and for the first time in a while we find some fresh strawberries. We also found some funny hats, and since Timon doesn’t have one at the moment, we decided to buy two. A green monster for Timon, and something that looks like a lama for Hester. At the end of the market we find ourselves a nice small café. While most of the other guest in the café must have thought “it’s five o clock somewhere”, we decided to go for a coffee. We end up having a nice conversation with a local about our trip and Ecuador as a country. He points out at all these amazing places in the area and further south. When asking him whether he has been to those places himself he needs to acknowledge he hasn’t. A response not new to us. It happens a lot that locals speak about all these amazing regions and places in their country, but they never had the opportunity themselves to actually visit. That night, despite the fact that we did some grocery shopping for dinner, we settle again for “Curry Wurstel” in the biergarten. If you are ever in the region this is a great, affordable stop!

The next morning we are off to Quito. We take our time since it’s only a short drive and the hostel we are staying in has a pretty strict check-in time. Again, a smooth ride to the city. Really quick, and the thing in comparison to Colombia is that in Ecuador you don’t have to pay toll for good roads. At night in the hostel we have a meeting with a local tour agent to talk us through the travel options in the region and country. Since we haven’t really decided whether we would visit the Galapagos yes or no, we are trying to get most of the info from her on that. After hearing all the prices, from flights to local activities on the islands we decided to cook our own meal that night to safe ourselves a couple dollars 😊!

Since we experienced some minor issues with the car we decided to find ourselves a local mechanic. For overlanders there is an App called Ioverlander and this is basically a great review platform where you can find everything you need while traveling with a car through South and Central America. So I contacted a guy who is highly recommended in the app yesterday through WhatsApp and this morning he was expecting us as agreed. After a quick research he finds the problem and is able to resolve it in minutes. Since labor is very affordable in Ecuador, and quality of work is good, we decide to have him pimp-up/check our car a little for the gravel roads we are expecting to drive the upcoming months. Since the mechanic doesn’t recommend us to walk back to our hostel with our stuff we decide to take a taxi. In the afternoon we rent ourselves a couple bikes to travel to the center of Quito. A couple minutes in we come to the conclusion that we have clearly underestimated the height difference in the center of Quito. We visit some of the hotspots of Quito downtown, but due to some protests we aren’t really able to access all parts of the city as easy as we hoped for. At night we meet again with the tour guide who promised us some additional information on the Galapagos and potentially a Jungle Tour. Clearly, the prices for the tours haven’t become any cheaper since the last time we spoke to her so that night we decide to cook for ourselves again!

The Hostel is actually quite comfortable and to my own surprise I wake up at 10:00 AM instead of 7 or 8AM in the morning. Where as when we lived in New York usually the alarm woke me up, I’m now waking up at 7 or 8 without an alarm going off. Starting with breakfast in the restaurant, I feel like having a day of doing absolutely nothing. Not having settled on a final plan for the Galapagos, Hester decides to visit a local tour office near the Hostel to find some more information. After three hours I decide to send her a text to check-in with her. Since she has no internet and relays on WiFi spots, I’m not assured of getting an answer. But surprisingly enough I do get an answer. She settled for tea at the tour operator and tea resulted in a three hour conversation on what to do at the Galapagos. Coming back with two options for our 10 day stay on the Islands I had the final task on negotiating the price down. Saving ourselves a couple 100 USD after negotiating the prices down, we were satisfied and happy we finally finalized our program for the Galapagos. I can say now, after having been there, it’s possible to arrange everything on the Islands itself in the period we were there (low season). But since being on the islands is so expensive, I think it’s a waste of your time to spent time on arranging stuff while you are actually there. If you go, I would recommend you to do as much as possible with the time you have.

Fixing the car was supposed to take only a day, but since we are three days in now, I start to get a little worried. Due to tax reasons we decided to change the registration of our car from New York state to Washington State. This change also meant that we needed a set of new license plates. So our first activity today was visiting DHL to pick up our new plates. The joke is that they start with the letters “BMW”. Afterwards we bring a surprise visit to the mechanic. They are making progress, but slowly. We decide to take the car and return it a day later, and leave it with them while we go to the Galapagos. Safes us paying for parking while being away.

The next morning, we go to the center of the world. A terrain developed by the Ecuadorian government to honor measurements done by the French to determinate where the center of the earth was located. It’s a very commercial tourist trap, but since we could travel there with our own car it’s a nice day trip from Quito. Actually, in modern days and with current technology the painful conclusion has to be made that the French miscalculated the actual center of the world. So the building and terrain dedicated to this are located roughly 400 meters too far to the South ☹. Ok, in the Netherlands we would say they’ve done it “Met de Franse slag”, but I have to admit that it’s pretty impressive they were only 400 meters off to the actual center of the world if you realize which tools they used at that time to determinate the actual location of the equator. In the afternoon we drop off the car at the mechanic where we will leave it for the next 12 days. Since our car is like our home these days, we are always a little sceptic to hand over the keys, but in the end you don’t really have a choice, and let’s be honest.. It’s only a car right…

The time has come, today we are leaving to the Galapagos. Taking an Uber to the airport makes us realize how far it is from the city center. We are driving for an hour and half to reach the terminal. The airport is brand new and looks very fancy. As we learned from the locals, it’s build in a valley with very difficult wind flow for Airplanes to land during the daytime, therefor most international airlines only use the airport at night when the wind is more in favor for landing and takeoff. Our flight will bring us to Isla Baltra, the Island on which they have build one of the two airports in the Galapagos. Before actually arriving and setting foot out of the door on this Island, we are already down 280 USD. All the taxes and additional fees to actually gain access to these group of islands is pretty impressive, but what we don’t know then is that it’s going to be worth every penny. Straight from the Airport we take the bus to the harbor. The last couple weeks we spent a lot of time far above sea level, and now we are back at sea level so it takes a little time to get used to the heat. In the harbor we take a boat across to Isla Santa Cruz. Not aware of the number of animals we are going to spot on our trip, I’m already wildly enthusiastic spotting the first black tip shark from the boat! While docking at the Harbor on Isla Santa Cruz we are also welcomed by our first sea lion, not knowing that we would spot many later. Only these two animals in the first 30 minutes already made us forgot that we just spent 280 USD to enter the Island. Our hotel for the first night is basic, but with a pool, nice to relax for a couple minutes, but the wildlife here is attracting us to go out and explore. In comparison to many other places in the world we decide to go to the city center, but now to spot animals. Rights of animals go before rights of humans, or at least that’s how it feels. Everywhere there are animals, even on the sidewalk, beaches, etc. At some point we arrive at a viewing point where we can see the ocean. Since it’s already dark we can only view a couple meters in front of us. We see 10, maybe 20 smaller sharks swimming in front of us, but then we both make a small jump backwards since an at least 3 meter long shark is swimming by at roughly 2 meters from where we are standing. Since we booked a couple snorkeling trips we were slightly impressed by this experience of facing these size of sharks in the waters so close to humans. We finish the day with a street food dinner. Every night this street is closed down so that local restaurant owners can take over the street and fill it up with tables and chairs. It results in a great big open air restaurant, with very good food, especially if you like seafood.

The next morning we have a couple hours before leaving to Isabella Island. We start with breakfast, the birds fly all the way to our table to eat the breadcrumbs from our plates. The hours we have left this morning we spent on the docks, watching the seabirds, fish and sealions. At 2PM the boat leaves, it takes us two hours to reach the other Island; Isla Isabela Here it is where our program actually starts. Straight from the boat we are placed in a bus to visit a lagoon with Flamingo’s. Honestly there aren’t many, and predictions are that soon they will be gone for good. But, besides Flamingo’s we spot a ton of other animals in the lagoons. In comparison to the rest of the group, we decide to walk back to the hotel over the beach. Something we didn’t think of, is the fact that there is hardly any internet on the Island, and therefor Google Maps isn’t of much use when you try to find your way back to the Hotel. What doesn’t make it much easier is that we had no clue on what the actual name of the hotel was, so we were in for some wandering around the town. Luckily it’s small, and there are only 3000 people living here, so we were able to track down the hotel fairly fast.

I felt that the second day was the real start of our tour. The lagoon was nice yesterday, but spoiled as we are it wasn’t that much different from some of the lagoons we had already seen in Mexico for example. We left early morning in a special made vehicle with our 70 year old guide to the Volcano where we would hike for 16km. Our guide had great knowledge about the area, and some good theories on many things in life. One of them is “when the road goes up take it slow, nobody likes to sweat and carry the water to rehydrate”. I feel that this theory had something to do with his age, but I didn’t care. His pace was perfectly fine for me! Hester was in explore mode so she was at least 400/500 meters ahead of us 😊! Arriving at the enormous crater the guide tells us we are lucky, because it’s clear from clouds. It’s steaming in some places due to last night's rain. A little further along the path we find a land turtle. It’s our first land turtle we spot, and we are surprised by the size and how active it actually is. The end point of the hike is a more recent eruption point of the volcano. You can see that nature is still struggling to recover here. What’s also quite special is the fact that within the lava stream there are little islands of green. Since iguanas don’t like to cross the lava areas they have evolved differently from their iguana neighbors living only 300 meters away from them.

After a little rest in the afternoon, we are up for our first snorkel trip in what the locals call their neighborhood swimming pool. To reach this swimming pool you need to deal with a couple of challenges:

1. The boardwalk to reach the pool is so nice that it takes you half an hour to reach the actual pool. Left and right you see animals swimming in the water or laying on the sand.

2. At the end of the boardwalk you will find larger groups of sea lions laying in the sun, and enjoying a lazy afternoon. You will need to cross through the middle of the group. The only advice given to you is don’t stop and keep moving.

3. If you want to eventually access the water, you need to realize that you are actually sharing the stairs with sea lions as well, and they don’t like you to hold them up so be prepared to being pushed aside.

When you finally made it into the pool, you find it’s a real treat. Please note that when we were visiting the Galapagos the sea temperature was quite high. But if you come when the temperatures are lower, I highly recommend you rent yourself a wetsuit otherwise you won't be able to enjoy the snorkel tours as much as we did, since the water temperature will force you out. Already now it was sometimes slightly too cold. During the tour through the pool we saw some fish, a with tip shark (at least 3 meters), Sting Ray, Ray and Sea lions. At some point during the trip I hear Hester scream. We were snorkeling through the mangroves. At some point we took a right, but Hester got into contact with a Sea lion at full speed, which was planning to take a left into where she was coming from. The scene that followed is one for the books; Hester looking slightly shocked at the sea lion, and the sea lion looking at Hester like why are you screaming? Just let me through! During our snorkel tour through the mangroves we met him or her three or four times more. The downside of joining an organized tour is that everything goes on a schedule. I guess we could have stayed here for 3 or 4 hours, but after an hour and a half it was time to leave.

The next morning we were going to visit the wall of tears. A wall built by prisoners to kill the time and their energy. Ecuador had used this island to hold prisoners shortly after the second world war, just after the Americans had left the island. I have to be honest and say that the wall isn’t that special. The hike to reach it is nice and we were lucky to spot multiple land turtles, as well as a hunting / playing sea lion in one of the beautiful smaller bays along the route. Near the wall of tears there is also a viewing point from where you have a stunning view of the island. In the early afternoon we visited a local turtle breeding center. Due to the fact that people introduced all kinds of exotic plant and animal species on the island, turtles cannot bread in the wild anymore. The eggs are typically eaten before they have the opportunity to hatch. In the late afternoon we are scheduled for another snorkel tour. Since it’s low season, and groups aren’t fully booked, we are added to a Chinese tour. Hester and I were the only western people on the boat, and as we find out later also the only ones who can actually swim. Very surprising if you ask me when you go on a snorkel tour and nobody can swim. Anyway, I’m not complaining it resulted in us having the whole bay just for ourselves, and one Chinese guy who decided to join us holding himself tight to a rescue buoy. Ah right, and one more guy who tried it, but when entering the sea he went straight to the bottom and had to be rescued by our guide. At some point when snorkeling in the bay we found 10 sea turtles sitting in the current, in a row behind each other. An amazing picture and very lucky to see. With our hands and feet we managed to explain to our Chinese companion to put his head underwater to see the Turtles. It works out and like us he becomes over enthusiastic. Back at the boat the captain decides to add a small tour to the trip for the people who stayed on the boat. Again, we aren’t complaining, during the tour we spotted our first blue footed boobies and some Galapagos Penguins. We do a last small trip by foot, on one of the small, remote islands. Walking around with these Chinese group was another experience, as some of them had a weird sense of humor and tried to scare every person we met going in the opposite direction. BOO! BOO! Well, we had to laugh about it at least, I hope the people that they tried to scare can laugh about it as well..

The last day on Isabella Island has come. In the morning we are picked up by a pick-up truck for a tour around the Island. To reach the northern part of the island you need to either walk or take a helicopter. The big problem of making the trip, is that there is no sweet water on the Island. So wherever you go, you need to bring drinking water for all the days you’re going to be out. To reach the northern side of the Island overland, that’s going to be almost impossible. Therefore it’s typically only done by boat. With the truck we make our way to the highlands, here we visit a local farm and hike through a lava tunnel with flashlights. For Hester and me it was the most important on this trip to do as much snorkeling as possible. Therefore in the afternoon we had another snorkeling tour. This time we headed out to sea using a Canoe. First stop was a big rock with a group of penguins and blue footed boobies on them. Especially the penguins were crazy active. Swimming around the canoe, and jumping in the water from the rocks in front of us. Then you had the occasionally blue footed boobie making a dive into the sea to catch some fish. It’s hard to describe in words, but if you have the chance, and some money, you should come to experience this yourself. Next up the guide takes us to a tunnel about 5 meters down. Not sure what to expect, we make the dive from our canoe to find a 3 to 4-meter-long white tip shark sleeping in front of the tunnel, great! After the tunnel we snorkel for about 1 hour more, and we spot a lot of sea turtles and even more sharks. Then the water becomes a little too cold, and we decide to head back to the canoe. While paddling in the canoe, on our way back to shore, we spot a huge eagle ray on our right. Both over enthusiastic, Hester and me both lean massively to the left to start paddling and steer the canoe quickly into the direction where we saw the eagle ray. But as you might be able to guess, we flip the canoe 😊, and end up with a wet backpack and not seeing the eagle ray up close. At least we offered the guide a good laugh since he found it all very, very funny. At the time we were back at shore, he was still laughing at our canoe skills!

Early mornings often bring rain in the Galapagos, also today at 05:30 when we are heading back to Santa Cruz. The two hour boat ride is bumpy and I see a lot less happy faces around me compared to the first ride. Anyway, we make it and when back at shore the weather has cleared, and the temperature has risen to a lovely 30 degrees. Today we are visiting the Darwin Center. I would summarize it as a nice place, but nothing special. For me it feels like a breeding center for turtles, and they tried to commercialize it to the max to get funds for this project. Nothing wrong with that, and definitely worth a visit, but not as special as actually going in the wild and seeing these animals in their natural habitat. In the afternoon we are taken by a guide to the Twin’s; two huge craters left by inactive volcanoes. These are located in the highlands of the Santa Cruz island, which comes with the benefit of lower temperatures. A quick hike through the forest on top and we are back in the taxi to a local Finca. At the terrain around the finca, land turtles have been given the space to live in the wild. We hike over the terrain for about an hour. In total I guess we spot around 50 to 60 land turtles. Most of them are fairly active, which makes it fun to watch them move around. After the Finca we head to an enormous lava tunnel. You find these tunnels all over the Island, and this is actually causing problems with tourists getting lost. Because if you walk in an area where there are many tunnels, the ground can be unstable, and you can fall in one of these tunnels. With the visit of this tunnel, our pre organized tour also has come to an end. We still have 4 days left at the Galapagos, and we have a pretty good idea of what we want to do with the days we have left. Take one guess.. So that night we visit a local tour agency and we use some stupid Dutch negotiation skills. Eventually, it feels that the guy gives in. I guess he still makes some money, but we are happy with the price we pay for the two more day tours. When we leave the office he says please don’t mention the prices to any other people on the tour, but I’m assuming he’s saying that to everyone.

The next morning we go for a snorkeling tour around the Island of Daphne. With the Taxi we are brought back to the Canal we crossed after arriving at the airport, and from there we enter a boat that brings us to the Island. The sea and current are quite rough, and typically this area is better for dives. You can do current dives here, where you hardly have to do any swimming. But, since I’m facing the issue with my ears we decided to just go for a snorkel tour here. The first stop is near a rock just before the island, we jump in to find out that again there are people on the snorkel tour who cannot swim. Earlier in the other bay that wasn’t too much of a problem, but here at open sea in my opinion, and the opinion of the guide, it is slightly different. Anyway, the guide tells us to do whatever, since he considers us pro swimmers. Soon we see a couple white tip sharks, they are huge! But those small sharks, as the guide calls them, aren’t enough. He makes a dive down of, I guess, at least 7 to 8 meters. He goes into a tunnel, and a couple seconds later 3 enormous white tip sharks come out, and the guide of course! Amazing, and clearly these sharks seem to have no interest in humans, at least not during day time. During the trip around the island we make 2 more dives, one near the island and one near a beach. The dive near the beach isn’t that successful, since the vision is close to zero due to the recent rain. But overall we see a ton of fish, sea lions, and of course a lot of sharks, both white and black tip. At night we eat somewhere in town, and enjoy ourselves for an hour or so on the boardwalk watching sharks, rays and what else swims by.

The next day we go out for a day long snorkel tour again. This time we go to the Island of Santa Fe. We make 2 snorkel stops on this tour. The first stop is near a rock with Sea lions, nosy as they are they come very close to us. Great for our underwater camera which they seem to find very interesting. Hester and I are again qualified as pro swimmers, so we are free to go, and don’t need to stay with the guide. At some point we find ourselves swimming above an enormous school of fish. Left and right the blue footed boobies are diving in the water to catch their food for the day. Spectacular experience, but we aren’t making ourselves popular with the group, since they are already back on board of the boat. Next stop is closer to the island of Santa Fe. Again, the sea lions come out to play. But, even better we spot two spotted eagle rays making love 😊. We follow them for quite a while going with the current, and again we are back at the boat as last. But, we can treat the group with an amazing movie. Actually, the waters around Santa Fe are very cold. So before lunch the captain offers us to do another snorkel dive, but we skip like most of the other people in the group. Before going to our final stop we are doing some sport fishing. Not really something I would do in my free time. We catch an enormous fish, and the captain goes completely crazy, and everyone needs to take a picture with it! I reckon it's about 2,5 meters long, but since I know absolutely nothing about fishing, I couldn’t tell you whether it was/is really special. Before going back to shore we make a stop at a small bounty beach. The problem with these beaches is that there are a lot of horse flies. Those flies are a big problem around the island, and a bite is painful. But, the other and biggest problem is that they blind the land turtles, because they stick them in the eyes.

That night we decide that we still don’t have enough of the snorkeling trips here in the Galapagos. So, we head back to our friend the tour agent! When he sees us coming, he tries to hide, but he is just slightly too late. He took a deep breath, and asked us what we wanted. Well, what about another snorkel tour? This time there is no need to negotiate the price. He straight away tells me his best offer, and we accept. Dutch as we are, we already asked around for the price and indeed he again offers us the cheapest rate for the tour!

So the next morning we are again energized and enthusiastic for our snorkel trip! This time we take a tour through the local bay. A trip everyone typically does when visiting Santa Cruz. We snorkel, visit one of the islands and swim in a small canyon, great tour for half a day! Also this time, we spotted a lot of sea turtles. How amazing are those animals, grazing calmly underwater. Beautiful! Completely out of energy we crash on a terrace that afternoon, and review the great memories we have gained here on the Galapagos.

The next morning we have to leave the Galapagos, and we conclude it is the number one highlight of the trip so far. Which is a very good conclusion, since we spent close to 20% of our budget of what we spent in the last 7 months in just 10 days, but it was worth every dollar. There wouldn’t be much I would have done differently based on what I know and have seen now. Maybe we could have stayed an additional night on Isabella Island and snorkel between the volcano rocks and lava tunnels, which is a popular spot to snorkel and see a lot of different animals. But, overall I wouldn’t have changed a thing. If you’re reading this for inspiration for your own trip to the Galapagos, please note that we were there in the low season. We were lucky with the weather, visibility and all, but if you go in high season your options are limited and as we have been told by other people tours might get full. It’s unfortunate, but it’s time to fly back to Quito!