An hour and a half after taking off from Quito, my flight landed at Seymour Airport on Isla Baltra of the Galapagos Islands archipelago. The Galapagos Islands are one of the places people wait a lifetime to visit. After landing, I could feel excitement in the air as people started getting giddy. Disembarking from the plane, people were already pulling out their cameras to take pictures. The lady right in front of me must have taken 30 pictures in the 100m walk from the runway to the entrance of the airport. People get Galapagos crazy.
After waiting in queue to sign some paperwork and pay a $100 entrance fee to the islands, I retrieved my pack, and went through security. “Security to leave the airport?” I thought. I had to have my bags checked again for species of plants, animals, or bacteria foreign to Galapagos. I boarded a bus for a 20 minute ride to a ferry on the south side of Isla Baltra. The ferry took me across a channel to Isla Santa Cruz, the main island in Galapagos. There I took another bus for an hour ride to Puerto Arroyo, the main tourist area on the south side of Santa Cruz. I grabbed my things and walked around looking for lodging. The first few places I encountered were $80+ per night. I eventually wandered upon Hostel Gardener, where I was able to get a dorm room for $15 per night. I dropped my bags, and went out for lunch.
Three hours of airport and transport fun had already elapsed since landing at about noon. By time I finished lunch, there wasn’t much in the way of sightseeing possibilities for the day. Natalia in Salinas had told me to talk directly to the captains of cruise ships in order to get the best deals on a ‘last-minute’ cruise packages, cutting out the commissions charged by tour agencies. I walked down to the docks attempting to find a last-minute cruise, but it was deserted. The captains and crew of the boats in port had already retired for the day.
I found some tour agencies, and attempted to find a cruise. When you walk in the door, you can almost see the dollar signs in the eyes of the salespeople at these tour agencies. Almost all their offerings seemed way overpriced. At one agency, I met Johnny, a native from Galapagos whom had lived in New York for a year to learn English. He seemed like a good guy and like he wasn’t going to try and rip me off too much. However, none of the cruises offered seemed like good deals. Instead, I had him arrange day trips for me for the next five days. It came out to $580, and offered more activities and sightseeing than several of the cruises going for double the price. Afterwards, I went to a scuba shop and booked a dive for $180 on a morning I had nothing planned. It felt good to have my week all planned out. Now all I had to do was show up and enjoy the trip.
I spent the rest of the afternoon taking pictures and exploring Puerto Arroyo. In the evening I had an excellent dinner of camerones encocado (shrimp in coconut sauce) on Calle Charles Binford, a street where the locals eat a few blocks off the main tourist drag.
I awoke early the next morning for a day trip to Isla Bartholomew departing at 6am. I met my guide and tour group at the main pier and we took a bus back to the north port of Santa Cruz. From there we boarded a 40 foot boat, and set out for a two and a half hour journey (at about 7-8 knots) north to Bartholomew. On the way, I spotted a hammerhead shark thrashing about near the surface, feasting on something.
At Isla Bartholomew, the boat anchored in a bay and the group took a dinghy ride to the island. There we set out for a hike to the top of the volcanic island.
After hiking, the group returned to the boat, changed into snorkel gear, and took a dinghy to a sheltered sand beach with reefs not far off shore. There I snorkeled for an hour. I saw all types of cool, florescent colored fish. On the beech I saw a bunch of cool looking crabs and lizards.
At one point, in about 8 feet of water, I approached something that looked like a heap of rope on the sandy bottom. There were small fish milling about it. I was right above it when all of a sudden it started moving. It was a stingray of about 10 feet in diameter with a 4 foot barbed ‘stinger’ tail. When it first stirred it scared the absolute shit out of me. The first thing that went through my mind was “Don’t Steve Irwin me!” After gaining my composure, I followed along marveling at its formidable grace as it hovered along the ocean floor.
The next morning, Thursday, I had a day tour of Isla Floreana that departed from Puerto Arroyo at 7:30am. Our group boarded a 25 foot powerboat that took two hours to reach Floreana. On the way I was lucky enough to be seated next to Silvia Barbero, an Argentine painter and muralist. After documenting and celebrating the awesomeness that is South American street art for the past three months, here I was sitting next to a lady who creates said art. Silvia was being commissioned by the government of the islands to paint the outside walls of several schools in Galapagos. She showed me photos of her works, I showed her some of the street art I had photos of, and we discussed the craft and technique. By the end I’m pretty sure I must’ve sounded like a fan-boy, gushing at her vocation.
Silvia and I we were with different tour groups, so we said goodbye once in port at Floreana. On Floreana, my group of five boarded into the bed of a pickup and took a ride to a nearby hiking trail. After a 15 minute hike, we arrived at a bay encircled by volcanic rock. We went snorkeling in the bay for an hour. In the bay there were dozens of giant green marine turtles. The turtles were so serene, floating majestically through the clear blue water, un-phased by humans.
I spent about 15 minutes with one huge turtle. At one point we were floating face to face, looking directly into each other’s eyes for a good 45 seconds. He would cruise along and I would follow. A couple of times he even waited for me to catch up as he was swimming too quickly for me.
When the guide was calling us into shore, I said goodbye to my turtle friend. He started diving towards the bottom, and I took a big breath and dove down, grabbing onto his shell. He took me down and down, and I finally patted his shell and broke for the surface. I thought I was only about 15 feet down, but he had taken me much deeper. I swam up and up, in need of a breath, but still not finding the surface. Finally, I hit the top and took a big inhale. I must have been 25-30 feet down by time I finally let go of its shell and swam for the surface.
I made it to shore, and after taking off my fins and standing up, I felt drunk. I wobbled around feeling lightheaded before sitting back down. I’m still not sure what happened, but I think I may have given myself a minor case of the bends or nitrogen narcosis on the final dive with the turtle. It mostly subsided after about 5 minutes and I felt completely normal again after 15 minutes.
After lunch, we hiked Floreana. We saw several tortoises and also explored the ruins from the first settlers on the island.
That night I had dinner and a beer at Cris Burger, which I highly recommend if you’re ever in Galapagos and need a big fat burger, and finished it off with two scoops of mint and chocolate ice cream from Café Galapagos.
The next morning I again set out at 6am. This time it was for my scuba diving trip. I met three girls from Spain at the dive shop, and we boarded into a pickup truck taxi to be driven to the north port of Isla Santa Cruz. I spent the ride getting to know the Spanish girls. One of them was an experienced diver, but, like myself, this would be the first dive for the other two. At the dock at the north port, we met Jesse and Lucho, our dive instructors, as well as five other people coming on the trip.
While waiting on dock, I witnessed an awesome phenomenon. Near the docks, there were enormous schools of silvery baitfish congregating in the shallows. Several hundred blue-footed boobies flew in circular patterns above until one boobie would dive towards the baitfish. The rest of the flock would follow and hundreds of boobies would plunge into the water at once, diving for fish. The birds must’ve been torpedoing into the water at more than 50mph. Then the boobies would all surface, gulp down a baitfish, then take off to circle above for five minutes or so while getting into formation before launching another coordinated attack. It was incredible.
After all the diving gear was loaded onto the dive boat, the group boarded and set off for an hour ride to North Seymour Island. The divers with certifications had a 45 minute dive while the noobs received instruction from Lucho. After the certified divers finished, the five other noobs and I suited up in wetsuits, weight belts, tanks, air lines, respirators, fins and goggles for our first dive. The entire rig weighed more than 60lbs. A dude from California and myself were first up for in-water training. We sat on the edge of the boat, and on the count of three pushed backwards into the ocean. No turning back now!
In the water, Lucho made sure we knew how to use the respirator correctly. We got comfortable breathing into it, and then we descended to the bottom (about 20m down). At the bottom we got comfortable with the sensation of being underwater. On the way up and down we practiced proper breathing on make sure we avoided decompression sickness (the bends) that can occur from the effect of changes in pressure on the human body.
After all five of us noobs had training, we were ready to go. One girl freaked out briefly as we were about to descend. Lucho spoke with her and she settled down after a couple minutes. He promised to hold her hand the entire dive, and she decided to proceed. Two other instructors, along with Lucho, gave the signal, and we all descended to a depth of about 40m.
When everyone was near the bottom, the instructors checked in with everyone, then group swam northward along the southern coast of North Seymour Island. We encountered several reefs filled with schools of fish. At one point, the sun above seemed blotted out, and I looked up to see a school of about 50 diamonds rays swimming together. We also encountered a couple small whitetip sharks, starfish, and a large sting ray.
Overall, it was a truly amazing experience. Being underwater is like being in a completely different world. It must be something like outer space. I will admit that I had a 20 second freak out about midway through the dive. I don’t know what came over me, but I began breathing rapidly and then started thinking, “Holy shit, what am I doing down here? All I have to breathe through is this fucking tube! If it fails, I’m dead!” I slowed my breathing and calmed myself down. I made peace with the situation, and then enjoyed the rest of the dive. I will definitely be scuba diving again in the future.
That afternoon, I went on a highlands tour of Santa Cruz. I went to a reserve to see giant Galapagos tortoises living in the mist-covered, grassy forests of the highlands. I also saw geological sites of underground lava tunnels and Los Gemelos, huge canyon-like craters caused by collapsed magma chambers.
The next morning, I packed up at Gardener Hostal and caught a 7am powerboat to Isabela Island, the largest island in Galapagos, where I would be staying for the next two nights. At Puerto Villamil on Isabela, I was immediately greeted by dozens of sea lions lying about on the docks and beach.
I was picked up by a van, and delivered to Gran Tintoreras Hostal. After lunch, I set out on a tour of Isla Tintoreras, just off the coast of Isabela. On a guided tour of the volcanic island, I came across sea lions, Galapagos penguins, green turtles, and marine iguanas. Later we were looking at a shallow inlet reaching into the island from a bay, and a half dozen whitetip sharks were sleeping in the inlet.
Later, our boat anchored in a bay, and the group went snorkeling. It was amazing snorkeling. I swam with hundreds of parrotfish, angelfish, yellowtail surgeonfish, pufferfish, and schools of blue-silvery baitfish. I also encountered another stingray, sleeping on the bottom of the bay. This one was huge at about 15 feet across.
Later, some sea lions showed up. Snorkeling with the sea lions was incredible. On land, sea lions seem goofy and clumsy, but in the water they are exceedingly graceful, darting to and fro. They were extremely playful too, swimming right up to my face and zipping underneath and all around me. At one point, I was gliding in a current just above a sea lion that was swimming on its back. It was looking right into my eyes for several seconds as we floated silently in the current—a truly sublime moment.
At the end, the guide took me down a narrow corridor enclosed by volcanic rock. In this corridor, several whitetip sharks swam beneath me. A couple of them were about 12 feet long. At first I didn’t know why the guide was taking me this way. When the first shark zipped beneath me, it startled me beyond belief. I swam with the sharks for a couple minutes, but was soon happy to get the hell away from them and return to the boat.
The following day, I set out at 7am for a guided tour of the Sierra Negra Volcano and Volcano Chico. Our tour group loaded into a van for an hour ride into the center of Isla Isabela. In the misty morning, the group set out for a 15km hike to the mouth of the still active Sierra Negra Volcano. Afterwards, we hiked through a mars-like hell scape of a black and red volcanic rock to see Volcano Chico.
My final day on Isabela, I was picked up at the hostel for a tour of Los Tuneles, a network of tunnels formed by magma formations from the last time the Sierra Negra Volcano erupted. We spent some time traversing over the tunnels before setting out on a snorkel tour through the tunnels. We swam with dozens of green turtles, sharks, rays, and even a seahorse.
After returning from my tour of the tunnels, I had to quickly pack up to catch a 2pm boat back to Santa Cruz.
On Santa Cruz, I settled back in at Hostel Gardner before cleaning up and setting out for souvenirs and dinner. It was my last night in Galapagos—I would be flying home to Chicago for my older brother’s wedding the next morning. I started the evening by grabbing a beer at a shop and then walking the streets. I later had a ginormous plate of grilled octopus for dinner before getting some ice cream and retiring to bed.
The next morning, I hurriedly ate breakfast and packed up. My backpack was bulging, and would barely close. I was on the sidewalk hailing a taxi to the bus station by 7am. The journey of buses and ferries to the airport took two hours and I was to my gate with only 15 minutes to spare. I sat in quiet contemplation. It was a bittersweet moment, realizing the reality that I was actually going home after three months on the road. Part of me was happy to see my friends and family, but another part of me wasn’t ready to leave South America. “To be continued,” I thought as I boarded my plane.
11 hours later I was home in Chicago. I sang ‘Sweet Home Chicago’ to myself (and the delight of a couple in front of me) as I disembarked and went through immigration. Once I got out of the airport, I had a feeling of relief and joy to be home. My Mom picked me up at the airport, and all felt right in the world.
