seekingmygreaterperhaps

I don’t say this lightly, I just came from my trip in the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador, and it might be one of my top 5 favorite trips I’ve ever taken. That’s a pretty bold claim, because if you look at any of my other blog posts, I’ve been on some pretty incredible trips and seen marvelous things. I’m not quite sure if there is a reason I can pinpoint why I loved this place so much, but it felt magical in so many ways. I joined a tour group and we all vibed well and our tour guide, Cesar, was absolutely fantastic and super knowledgeable. I left the trip knowing so much more about wildlife and specific parts of nature and caring deeply for our Earth. It could also be that I went in not having done a ton of research (oops), so everything we saw was a lovely surprise.

To be fair, it was a busy semester and all my free time was spent applying and then interviewing for a new job. I taught 5 sections of my class at NOVA, which is where the money for this trip came from. I was holding out hope and subscribed to all the email lists for “last minute deals” to try and go to Antarctica, but it just didn’t fit into my budget this year. So I pivoted and picked another expensive spot in South America and landed on the Galapagos. I have a couple friends who’ve been and loved it, and it just happened that my friend Evan wore his “I love boobies” shirt to a gathering at the right time and I decided to go. Once I found a tour I wanted and booked it, I was just ready to show up. Yes, I picked a tour even though I usually travel on my own. The Galapagos is a pretty tricky place to navigate, and the entire place is a national park so there are a lot of rules. Also the Galapagos is an archipelago, which means that there is a lot of inner-island transport. I just decided to treat myself and do the tour, and it was SO WORTH IT! I will recommend it to anyone and everyone. I traveled with Intrepid Tours and did the Galapagos Island Hopping. (Try to get Cesar as your guide- he was awesome.) You start and end on the islands, so I needed to arrange my own flights, but the tour joined up with the other Intrepid tour that started in Quito and included the flight. Well, if you remember, I got robbed in Quito and have zero desire to go back there… ever. Many of the tours from various companies start in Quito and include flights, but I searched and found one that meant I didn’t have to go to Quito. Also, I could arrange my flights how I liked, and I spent 2 extra nights on the front end in San Cristobal, and 2 extra nights on the back end in Santa Cruz. Oh yeah, and I saved $500 by organizing my own flights, and another $300 or so by waiting a few extra days before booking my trip. (The deals on the Intrepid website are great.) The Galapagos is hard to get to, and possibly a once in a lifetime trip, so I chose to make the most of it!

In total I saw 5 islands, San Cristobal, Floreana, Isabela, Santa Cruz, and Pinzon. I’m going to break up the blog posts a little bit, mostly so I can continue to relive this incredible experience for as long as possible. The Galapagos is also somewhere that I would go back to if I was able to go scuba diving. We did a ton of snorkeling, and I know that diving would add a different depth (eh).

Alright, here we go! First up- San Cristobal! This is the island where Darwin first landed, and where about 75% of the sea lions call home. Upon arrival, I took a 3 minute taxi ride from the airport to my bnb, dropped my bags, and walked into town. Immediately, I saw sea lions just hanging out. Little did I know that sea lions rule the Galapagos and are everywhere. On this trip I took over 1,600 pictures! I had a $4 “almuerzo” which is a set menu lunch, went back to check in, and then immediately out to Playa Mann, where I would watch the sea lions and the sunset.

I think this sea lion is giving me the side eye. Everywhere on the Galapagos, you must stay 2 meters (6 feet) away from wildlife. My guide would later say, “you can’t touch them, but they can touch you!” In the sky of this picture, you can see the grey clouds rolling in. I got caught in a downpour on my walk back, so I stopped for dinner and then just made my way back to my bnb (Hostel Cattelaya) to call it a night. I ate at Umami for dinner and had an amazing ceviche.

I woke up well rested and had a lazy morning. I thought I might walk around and see if I could join a tour since my official tour started the next day. A travel agency laughed at me when I walked around at 9am, because all the tours started earlier than that. Oopsie. Instead I made my way over to Playa Punta Carola, where there is a busted old lighthouse. I walked as far as I could, and did a little bit of scrambling over the lava stones. Then I walked back over to the beach and spent my entire morning watching the sea lions.

Sea lions, or lobo marinero in Spanish (a sea wolf), are adorable. They are truly the puppies of the sea, and they act like dogs. The adults lay around all day. They roll in the sand, the itch themselves with their fins. The pups play. Sea lions are very loud, and pretty smelly. I went to stand in the water near where the sea lion pups were playing, and I brought my GoPro. They played right around me and splashed me, and then when I just looked at the footage yesterday saw that they were twirling and spinning and they are just adorable. I got out of the water when the giant male entered to scope things out and got pretty close to me (later I would learn from my guide that this was definitely the right choice).

Then, I put on my goggles and just decided to go for a swim and see what was out there. To my delight, there were 2 sea turtles right there! They were having a snack and not fussed with me at all. How cool! And on my first day! I stuck around the water for quite a while looking at other fish, watching the turtles until they swam away and thinking how lucky I was to be there. (Note- this was the morning when I got sunburnt to a crisp on my back. Traveling alone has it’s downsides… and not being able to reach your back is a major one. I thought I was fine because it was cloudy. I KNOW BETTER. It was specifically this morning that did it, because after lunch I put on a sunshirt- which I bought and brought with me because I know my pale skin burns, but just didn’t use it. Sigh. Thank goodness my eventual roommate on the tour was an angel and helped me apply lotion before bed.)

Eventually, I had to leave the beach to find food. I didn’t go far, and ended up at a restaurant right at Playa Mann. Here there were the locals, and by locals I mean the sea lions. I hung out at this beach the rest of the day. I met this other girl named Lucy who just put her stuff by me and then we were friends. The sunset was really beautiful, and the sea lions were great at posing. It was here that a baby sea lion booped me. Let me say how hard it is not to touch them or pet them because they are SO CUTE. But if someone touches a sea lion, it is a death sentence for them because their moms recognize them by scent and if human oils get on their fur, the moms reject them. So no touching. Just looking and squealing internally because they are adorable.

For dinner I was strolling along and my eye got caught by the “World’s Best Restaurant” logo I am familiar with. Muyu is on the Discovery list (which means it’s not quite in the top 50, but it’s on the list people’s radar) and “brings produce from farm, forest and ocean to the table.” I had a magic tea- made with butterfly pea and lemon so it changes colors. My main meal was Brujo- which is mottled scorpionfish, a plantain mashed potato type thing, and kimchi. The scorpionfish was incredibly tasty, and very local to the Galapagos, possibly the only place in the world you can eat it. It’s got a taste and texture kind of like lobster, and I really enjoyed it! My dessert was called “everything tangerine” and while it looks like vomit in a bowl, it was fresh and light and wonderful.

Finally, the next day I met my tour! We got sorted with snorkel gear that we would lug to each island and use the whole week, and then went off to La Loberia, a beach with sea lions and our first group snorkel. The water was COLD, and convinced me to rent a wet suit for the rest of the journey, ha!

A frigate bird and a sea lion at la Loberia

Cesar, our guide, is a biologist and a National Park naturalist guide, and he would be with us the entire tour. I am so grateful for his knowledge and how much he knew about everything we had questions about. On the walk to the beach he was showing us iguana trails in the sand and sea lion trails too. At la Loberia he explained the “beach master” sea lion, which is the male who patrols the water of a harem of up to 60 females sea lions and babies. There is an area they patrol and there can be many male sea lions who “own” sections of the beach. But their sections don’t overlap, and where the space is, that is where it is safe for you to enter the water. Also if you are swimming in their are, my guide said there are two steps- first a bump from the male to let you know that you need to go, and then a bite. I am so glad I learned this, but also then freaked out because I got nudged while swimming in the water the day before at Playa Mann. God is always looking out for me and I didn’t get bit, but definitely felt like an idiot.

For dinner Cesar recommended a fisherman’s restaurant. Red spiny lobster can only be had in the Galapagos, and only every other year. So this restaurant sold them, and was our first dinner as a group! It was such a kooky restaurant, all the decor was wild. There were googly eyes on the planter pots, but the food was amazing! I would’ve passed it over, but this definitely is a reminder not to judge a book by its cover. Also- look at the SIZE of that lobster! It was cooked perfectly and absolutely delicious. I think this is the first time in my adult life I’ve ordered a lobster for myself.

Our full day in San Cristobal was the next day, and it was jam packed! We started off with a boat ride where we saw some of the birds the Galapagos is famous for. I spotted my first blue footed booby, we saw frigate birds and one was beginning to inflate it’s red sack for mating. From the boat we saw many swooping and “fishing” birds, as well as a sea lion hunting a tuna fish.

We stopped at some islotes to look at the wildlife before we headed to Cerro Brujo, possibly the most beautiful white sand beach I’ve seen. The way the Galapagos national park regulates tourism is that each group has a set time and time window they are allowed to be at certain sights. It really makes a difference because it feels like we had every sight to ourselves pretty much the entire trip. Cesar was super annoyed when we got to Cerro Brujo because the group in front of us was still there, and only just leaving and he said- oh no, they should’ve been gone already. Then he explained about the time slots and it made more sense. That could also be a factor in why this was one of my favorite trips.

In the background you can see Leon Dormido/ Kicker Rock. My group L-R: Hannah, Lily, Natalie, Mandy, Chris, Me, Cristina. All of them are Australian except for me and Cristina. Here you can see an up close shot of the Sally Lightfoot crab. They were very cool with their super bright colors and blue underbelly. On this beach we also saw cranes, ghost crabs, marine iguanas, and other wildlife.

Afterwards we went snorkeling at Leon Dormido/Kicker Rock which is where all of the hammerhead sharks like to hang out. This was a deep water snorkel, and it was intimidating. The current was really strong so you had to actually swim. The water visibility was pretty terrible, and I didn’t see anything. Which honestly… that’s fine with me, sharks scare me. Cesar did point out one shark, but I missed it, and I was like… oh shucks. The barnacles growing on the rock was cool, as was swimming in between the rocks in the trench.

We ate lunch on the boat before making our way back to land. On land we headed to the Interpretation Center and then took a mini hike up to the top of the Tijeretas to see the view of Darwin Bay from above.

The statue to commemorate the first landing spot of the Beagle is comically disproportionate, but there it is.

My Garmin tells me I did 17,106 steps that day. San Cristobal was a great way to start the trip!

Stay tuned for Floreana and Isabela next!