Galapagos – In the footsteps of Charles Darwin

After we did not find good offers in Quito for a cruise in the Galapagos Islands we decided to fly there and try to find some better offers directly in the main port, Puerto Ayora. And we’re glad we did because it was not a high season anymore and we found offers up to 30% cheaper than the ones in Quito. The best way to see the Galapagos Islands is with a cruise because in 4-5 days you can see a couple of islands each with different vegetation and animals and you have a naturalist that explains you everything in detail starting from the origin of the Galapagos Islands, to the specific species that can be found here and ending with the history of the people that inhabited these places.

The Galapagos Islands are a naturalist’s paradise and this is the place that inspired Charles Darwin to write about the evolution-theory. The main reason is that the animals on the Galapagos Islands are the fearless on the planet and are not at all scared when you approach them and 23% of the species that live here cannot be found anywhere else on the planet. This is the case of the Marine Iguana, which looks like an animal from a different planet. The Blue Footed Boobie is also one of the species that can be found only here. We were so fortunate to see Blue Footed Boobies during a mating dance or with little babies. Then there are hundreds of sea lions and what’s really amazing is that they can be seen on the streets of the towns or even lying on benches (look at the pictures).

Basically on every day of the cruise we had a nice planned program with lots of activities like hiking, snorkeling or wildlife watching. On one day we went to a beach with tens or hundreds of sting rays. We saw sting rays before but seeing them in such a big number on a beach was incredible. During snorkeling we saw lots of fishes and even a couple of whitetip reef sharks. I really hoped to see hammer-head sharks on the Galapagos and before our cruise I even went to a diving tour to a diving spot famous for the hammer –head sharks but I was not lucky. On the last day we went to the highlands on the Santa Cruz Island to a place where we saw the giant turtles which are the emblem of Galapagos. We expected them to be big but they are huge. They can live up to 200 years and weigh up to 300 kilos.

Another nice thing is that on the cruise, we met Cornelia, Gerlinde, Roland and Peter from Germany and Roland, even grew up in the village neighboring to the one where we live. In German there’s a nice saying that translates like “The whole world is only a small little village”.

One amazing thing we’ve seen or done

The whole trip and especially the cruise in the Galapagos Islands were amazing but there’s one thing that beats all the others and that’s definitely snorkeling and swimming with the sea lions. It’s something that no matter how much you do it, you cannot get bored of seeing how elegant they are when swimming or how childish they can play around you. It’s one of the pictures that we’ll for sure remember the rest of our life.

Next stop

Lima, Peru