Cruising the Islands: The Best and Worst of My Galapagos Trip

My Galapagos cruise was a highlight of my two and a half months in South America. And after the costs and stress of booking it all, I desperately needed it to be worth it! The islands are a bucket list item for nature lovers, but a trip like this is no leisurely Caribbean cruise. Your days are packed with hiking and snorkeling. I certainly wasn’t lying around on pristine beaches drinking cocktails all day long…

There WERE pristine beaches, of course, but I was walking along them staring at marine iguanas and yelping sea lions most of the time.

So here’s a photo-heavy recap of the trip, including a play-by-play of my Galapagos cruise itinerary and the best and worst moments of my trip. Because even in the Galapagos, there can be some lowlights…

The Itinerary, The Islands

Day 1: Santa Cruz. Having arrived a day early, I spent the night in Puerto Ayora and in the morning I strolled to Tortuga Bay to do my own thing at the beach, taking endless photos of marine iguanas since I didn’t yet know they’d be a staple of this entire week. At noon, I headed to the docks where one of the boat’s crew scooped me up in a zodiac so that I could be united with my fellow passengers onboard the Floreana.

After lunch, we all took a bus to El Chato, a huge ranch/refuge to see giant tortoises feeding and bathing. Post-tortoises, we had some time to grab necessities and a few beers in town before heading back to the boat for the sunset and dinner… and drinks.

The town of Puerto Ayora

Tortuga Bay

“Easily 100 years old,” said our guide about some of the tortoises at El Chato. I feel insignificant.

Day 2: Floreana Island. One of the oldest islands, we first stopped off at Cormorant Point where we arrived to a volcanic beach, snapping photos of blue-footed boobies from the zodiac while en route. We explored a lagoon with pink flamingos doing mating dances and nesting before walking across the island to a white sand beach to look for rays… and the bright red Sally Lightfoot crabs that I can’t get enough of.

In the afternoon, we went deep water snorkeling at Devil’s Crown rock, which was possibly the highlight of the entire trip. Traveling solo but being told to swim with a buddy, I partnered with an old German man, Gerhardt, whose wife had decided not to join the group on this outing. He was very good at spotting wildlife – thought not so good with the English – and we swam with huge schools of fish, a giant ray, sea lions, and sharks (thank God they stayed near the bottom; there were about twelve of them).

Devil’s Crown // The barrel full of postcards at Post Office Bay

After lunch, we headed to Post Office Bay, which is a Galapagos rite of passage, though it felt pretty lame to me. It’s a wooden post barrel that was created in the 1700’s. People still drop off postcards, and you’re supposed to take one with you only if you feel you can hand-deliver it to its intended recipient. Or maybe I’m just bitter there were none addressed to anybody in North Carolina…

We did even more snorkeling in the afternoon. This time the visibility wasn’t as great, the water was chilly, and there weren’t as many fish, but the sea lions and sea turtles frolicking and/or mating all around us made it totally worth it! This was one of the many “Is this real life?” moments of this trip.

Day 3: Española Island. Supposedly the island with the most densely packed and concentrated wildlife. Our hike in the morning at Suarez Point led us to a baby sea lion playground and more crabs and marine iguanas. But this walk was really for the birds… literally. Ha ha.

We spotted the waved albatross (the only island where you can find it, and even then, only before it migrates, of course), blue-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, and some sea birds. The coast here is a dramatic rocky cliff with bright blue water, and there’s even a blowhole.

The Nazca Booby nesting (yep, there’s an egg under there!)

The albatross is huuuge, but we couldn’t get too close to them as they were far from the path

An abandoned albatross egg… which our guide explained means that one mate didn’t return and the other had to go look for food in order to survive rather than keep the egg warm. So this egg is dead. Sad.

Yeah, that’s a whole lotta iguanas… ick!

Mean ass mockingbirds

Land lizards, everywhere.

A sea lion baby nursing!

In a crazy contrast, that afternoon we were dropped off at Gardner Bay, a beautiful white sand beach with turquoise water and sea lions lounging and grunting all around. We snorkeled from the beach, swimming to the rock formations out front, playing with sea lions and lots of fish.

Oddly enough, in one of those moments where a travel photo looks a lot better than its reality, the beach was covered in very aggressive flies. They didn’t bite, but the flies would cover your body, especially your face, and it wasn’t pleasant at all. Eventually mockingbirds appeared to help remove – um, eat – the flies.

Day 4: San Cristóbal Island. Finally, an inhabited island! We walked to a museum-esque historical center which taught us how the islands were formed, how they were discovered, and how humans almost ruined them before deciding they were worth preserving. Everybody knows about Darwin’s famous visits to the Galapagos, but there were also some very mysterious disappearances on the islands and even attempts at a reformatory penal colony settlement. Also, did you know the Spanish ATE the giant tortoises?!

Hey, check that out! Did you know you could study abroad in the Galapagos?

Lobos Island. Holy cow, this island was covered with sea lions (in Spanish, sea lions are called lobos del mar or wolves of the sea), thus the name. Our guide explained that this area was a kind of birthing center for them. We saw tons of baby sea lions and even one baby that had been born hours before our arrival. After walking past all of the sea lions, we also saw several blue-footed boobies, including some eggs and babies!

Wow. Just, wow.

We even observed large male sea lions being a bit aggressive, and after some horror stories from our guide about how they WILL bite people, that afternoon’s nearby snorkel session was a little nerve-racking.

Note: While they have different areas for everything else, sea lions poop everywhere, so the smell is intense sometimes.

Day 5: Santa Fe Island. Well, we finally saw the land iguana. He looks different than his marine counterparts, and he’s greenish yellow. Not super exciting. During our last snorkel sesh, it was freezing, but we did get to see a graceful sea turtle swim by us.

South Plazas Island. Strange, almost alien landscape with red vegetation and cacti everywhere. There was a rocky cliff and bachelor colony of male sea lions where we saw lots of sea birds. Overall though, I felt it was a totally skippable island.

Day 6: Black Turtle Cove. A short 5 AM zodiac ride to see sea turtles mating and several blue-footed boobies. I’m gonna be honest, this was so early and I hadn’t finished packing, so I skipped it. Sorry. I’d already seen sea turtles mating at Tortuga Bay.

The Best of it all

Snorkeling! I really cared most about the sea life in the Galapagos, so these snorkeling sessions were just damn amazing to me. The first day was really a highlight and something I’ll remember forever. Sharks, rays, sea lions, and SO many fish! The islands aren’t warm enough to sustain much coral, so it’s a totally different landscape than you’d see in, say, the Caribbean.

New Irish friends! This couple that I met on our boat was so fun, and it helped that we shared the same opinions on having paid so much for one tiny portion of a long-term trip. We were some of the only passengers who wanted to lie on the deck in the sun during the day and have drinks and maybe even go to the bar at night. Along with a few others, we saved money where we could by buying boxed wine on the islands to bring onboard.

Animals! So close! I will never stop being shocked that these animals – birds, fish, sea lions – let you get so close to them. I guess that’s what happens when they’ve been so protected for so long. It’s incredible.

Our crew. These were the nicest guys ever. They worked tirelessly in many different positions on the boat. Though we rarely saw the captain himself (duh, he was at the helm), the rest of the guys served, cleaned, cooked, and drove us around in the zodiac. They even made special trips to take us ashore when we needed to buy more booze, and they happily put our boxed wine in the fridge for us. And I won’t even get into how the cook made us grilled ham and cheese sandwiches late one night…

The bar on San Cristobal! Okay, I know this isn’t what the Galapagos is all about, but after two days of being away from civilization, it was cool to head out to a bar one night. And even cooler that the crew accompanied us. They showed us this cool spot where locals and study abroad students alike hung out. Um, this may be when the late night sandwiches came into play.

Sea lion babies! I will never get tired of them.

And the Worst

Clouds. It was cloudy quite a bit. So much so that when the sun came out, we were overly surprised and excited. There wasn’t nearly as much deck lounging time as I’d expected during my planning.

Roommate Drama. So when traveling solo on one of these cruises, unless you pay a single’s supplement, you can expect to have a roommate. Initially when I arrived, the boat wasn’t full and they put me in a cabin of my own. Score! Well, that lasted about two hours. The boat booked up at the last minute, and I was moved to a room with a German woman who’d been aboard for a couple of nights already. Needless to say, she was not pleased. She’d settled in and kind of expected (though she hadn’t paid for it) to have a private room. Sorry, bro, I ain’t happy about this top bunk situation either, but they’re making me move in. She acted very immature about it very publicly. (Don’t worry, she apologized later.) Still, it was a bit uncomfortable at first.

Tiring and Expensive. This is a combo situation. Since this isn’t a leisure cruise, your days are pretty much booked full. You hike, you snorkel, you hike, you snorkel, you eat, you sleep. And even if you’re tired or sick (see below), you feel like you shouldn’t skip out on anything because DAMMIT you paid good money for this trip!

How I felt at the end of each day…

I’m not that into birds. There, I said it. I get that they’re a big part of the Galapagos. I do. They just don’t excite me that much.

The food onboard. It wasn’t very good. I mean, it was passable, but it definitely could have been better.

Sickness. Somewhere along the line, I ate or drank something bad. I knew that it might happen eventually on my South American journey, but I didn’t think it would strike at the worst possible time – while I was sharing a tiny cabin and bathroom on a constantly moving boat in the middle of the most magical place on the continent. I never vomited, but let’s just put it this way:  about half of the time I was on this cruise, I wasn’t comfortable.

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Still, to answer your question, my Galapagos cruise was totally worth it! Could it have been better? Of course!  If I’d had a couple extra thousand dollars to throw at it, this trip could have been quite glamorous. (Though typically it’s all old folks that are on those fancy cruises, so I wouldn’t have met such cool people.) If I didn’t get sick, that would have definitely turned it up a notch. And if I happened to be an ornithologist, then I would have been in absolute bird heaven.

I’m very happy with the way it played out though. I hung out with great people and saw so much once in a lifetime stuff! The Galapagos Islands are absolutely amazing, and if you’re into wildlife and you can swing it, you should definitely go. If you’re in the process of making the Galapagos happen on a budget, feel free to ask me any questions!

Ever have any lows or disappointments on a big trip that you’ve planned? It happens…