Galapagos: A Photo Blog 🏝
BY DIEGO LASNER
I decided dedicating a normal written blog to my independent travel time spent in Galapagos would be underwhelming, and completely not doing the islands justice. As one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been to, I decided to show the world its beauty through pictures and videos I have taken.
Side Note: I actually was planning a trip to Peru with my dad, but in a series of unfortunate events, we arrived to the airport forgetting a letter of travel permission from my mom and I was not allowed to leave the country. At around 2:30 am in the morning, we were grumpy and tired and spent an hour arguing with immigration. We finally decided to turn in the towel and buy tickets to the next flight to Santa Cruz, Galapagos. I only got to spend about two and a half days in the beautiful islands, but I will definitely be coming back.
✈DAY ONE✈
The start of a journey-take off from Guayaquil.
Landing on the private airport island of Santa Cruz- definitely smallest airport I've ever been to.
Since we landed fairly late into the afternoon- not really planned very well but neither was this entire last minute trip- we only had time to explore the town of Puerto Ayora and go out to eat. The town has a main street filled with plenty of overpriced touristy food but if you wander away from the malecón, you can find a crap ton of street food for 1/3 of the price but just as good!! On the left is pictured a classic parillada (BBQ) with a mix of chicken, steak, and seafood. On the right is this fish (no idea what its called) that is sold in almost by every street vendor.
🌊DAY TWO🌊
MORNING EXPLORING
We started off the day finding a place to book a tour for the next two days. While wandering around, we found PLENTY of gift shops, the Charles Darwin exhibit and these cool colorful walls…
El Malecon – The Boardwalk
The harbor where all tour and cruise boats dock.
Marine Iguanas
Another one of the most common animals I saw on my trip is the marine iguana. The first picture I took on my way to the Charles Darwin exhibit. You can find these iguanas soaking up the sun on the sidewalks in Puerto Ayora. The second picture I took in a beach my dad and I found in the morning. There were also plenty of crabs.
SEA LIONS!!!
BAHIA TOUR: LOBERIA, CANAL DE TIBURONES, LA GRIETA
Playa de los Perros – Beach of the Dogs
In contrary to the name, there were sadly no dogs on this beach.
La Loberia- The Lion Den
Also a disappointing surprise, no sea lions on this island. Just a solitary bird.
After visiting La Loberia, we made our way to canal de tiburones (canal of sharks).
🌞DAY THREE🌞
ISLA PINZON TOUR
Before going on our full day snorkeling tour of Pinzon Island, we stopped by a fish vendor that was cleaning and cutting freshly caught fish. The smell attracts tons of sea lions and pelicans.
The boat ride to the island was about an hour. This is one of the smaller, unknown islands and it really doesn't have much as for land exploration. However, when booking the tour we were told by many different people that this island has some of the best snorkeling in all of Galapagos. What is considered the "best island" changes from season to season, as the animals have a tendency to migrate and never stay in one place.
Tortuga Verde
One of the first animals we was the turtle. Not really shown in the photo but they are HUGE.
Tiburones
In one shallow area, there was a horde of sleeping sharks (completely harmless of course). The area was shallow enough to stand but we were told by our tour guide to float on our bellies just in case one of the sharks bumped into us and got angered.
Lobos Marinos
Lobos Marinos
Right across from the sharks was another shallow area with plenty colorful fish and a family of sea lions. We got to see a baby swim with its mother and an aggressive male nearly attacked us.
After Isla Pinzon, we took a half hour boat ride back to Santa Cruz were we stopped at one more snorkeling spot before heading home. Sadly, we saw no wildlife here but we did have free time to snorkel and free dive. We also swam up to a nice beach, took our snorkel gear off, and went on a hike to one of the most beautiful beaches in the Galapagos. However, we had to run across sharp, black, burning hot rocks in order to get there. Definitely worth it though!!!
🏖THE END🏖
I hope you enjoyed my short curation of pictures from my time in the Galapagos. It was a short two and a half days, but in the small amount of time I was there I was able to see a myriad of different wildlife and scenery. It's truly a stunning place to visit in the world, and just one of the many natural wonders Ecuador has the offer.
NOTE: Many people think Galapagos is only a vacation destination for the rich (plane tickets are more expensive than a usual flight), but it doesn't have to be. While many people usually take multiple day cruise tours, its more economically convenient (and fun in my opinion) to stay on one of the main islands: San Cristobal or Santa Cruz.
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