I had hoped to update throughout the week while I traveled Galapagos, but I was so busy and nights ended so late I haven't had a chance to update until now.
At this point, my week of travel in the Galapagos is over, but it was a fantastic week. Julia, Alex and I used a local tour guide to put together our week's itinerary and it was even better than we expected. We weren't sure it was going to go smoothly, but it did. By having someone organize our tour based on what we wanted to see, we were able to see so much more.
Beginning last friday we took water taxis to Isabela to really begin our tour. The first water taxi to Santa Cruz wasn't too bad, but the taxi to Isabela was really rough. It was honestly like riding a wooden roller coaster for two hours. I was stuck in the worst seat too (which on a boat is in the front) which made the whole experience painful. Luckily my stomach could handle it, but I woke up the next morning with a really bad back ache. My lower back was completely sore from slamming down onto the seat with every wave.
Once we got off that nightmare boat and arrived in Isabela everything got better. Its remarkable how close the islands are to one another but how different they are. Isabela feels the most like an island and is the best island if you want a few more beach days in your trip. It has beautiful beaches along the whole coast so you don't have to walk anywhere to find a good one.
The first day at Isabela was the Tuneles day tour. These are underwater lava tunnel/bridge formations on the edge of the sea. This was my most favorite snorkeling spot (probably ever) because off all of the cool things to see. Not only where there sea turtles, tropical fish and sharks to see, but the lava formations were so cool to swim through. We had an excellent guide who took us under and around to formations and was able to spot the lava caves where sharks were sleeping. It was really a fantastic day and I have some great pictures of me swimming with giant sea turtles!
The next day was our Volcan Sierra Negra tour. This was a 10 mile hike (5 miles each way) alongside the caldera of the volcano. The caldera's diameter is a little over 6 miles wide itself. Huge crater on this volcano. After passing Sierra Negra we walked a little further to Volcan Chino, a smaller volcano but in an area that was completely covered in lava rock and ash. I've never seen anything like this - it was so cool.
I also did a few other snorkeling tours that allowed me to swim with 5/6 giant sea turtles at a time and swim next to a 5 or 6 ft long manta ray down a channel in the ocean. The wildlife here is really unusual and I'm so thrilled I've had so many chances to see and/or swim with these cool animals.
After Isabela, we headed to Santa Cruz. A taxi drove us around the highlands and took us to some cool places including a huge lava tunnel we could walk through. The tunnel was about the size of a subway tunnel. Pretty cool. In the afternoon we headed to Tortuga Bay - it's supposed to be one of (if not The) nicest beach on all of the Galapagos. It was about an hour walk along the trail and the beach, but it was a really pretty beach with lots of waves for surfers and the perfect swimming lagoon protected by rocks around the corner. I could have easily spent a whole day there, unfortunately we only had about an hour and a half to spend.
On our very last day in Galapagos we dropped the big bucks to take a day tour to Bartolome. If you Google image search "Galapagos," 9 times out of 10 Bartolome is the island they'll feature. The landscape is spectacular there with a fantastic view of the neighboring island, Santiago from the highest viewpoint.
Since we organized this tour through an agency, we weren't exactly sure what to expect when it came to our boat to Bartolome. Our other day tours had been relatively simple boats with bench seats. You can imagine our pleasant surprise when we found out we were put on the newest, nicest boat to Bartolome. This boat was a fully stocked yacht with a full kitchen, 2 bathrooms and a top deck for beautiful views. I felt a bit out of place with the other passengers on the boat (only older couples clearly with $$$) but I wasn't going to let that ruin my tour! Our meals were big, delicious and served on fine china. It certainly was more than we expected and what a great way to end our Galapagos trip! Of course, icing on the cake was riding in the boat next to about 20 Galapagos Penguins!!!! Wow. What an awesome trip.
I'm currently sitting on the plane back to Quito finalizing my plans for the next 3 weeks. I cant believe I only have 3 weeks left, but I'm so excited for them!
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