Galapagos Islands - Final Thoughts

Sunrise from Sullivan Bay, Santiago Island looking out over Bartolome Island

Our trip to the Galapagos Islands was a photography tour put together by the co-owners of,  Nature Photography Adventures, Bob and Diane.  They put together a great photography tour and were there to offer guidance on camera settings and to advocate for better and additional photography opportunities.  We stayed a couple of days in Quito, Ecuador touring the city and different sites and then flew to the Galapagos Islands where we boarded a catamaran named Nemo II.  Our itinerary focused on the western and northern Islands and included:  Santa Cruz, North Seymour and  Bartolome Islands (replacing Genovesa, which is currently quarantined due to bird influenza), Santiago, Rabida, Isabela and Fernandina Islands.  

Nemo II, our home away from home

The Nemo II crew took good care of us and our Galapagos Naturalist Guide, Jairo, was great!
The Nemo II has 7 cabins with a maximum capacity of 14 passengers.  The catamaran had an outdoor seating area at the back of the boat where we ate our meals and an indoor air conditioned salon with seating.  The cabins surrounded the salon lounge area.

Outdoor seating area where we ate our meals

Our Cabin - number 4
Our cabin was cozy, but not spacious as we expected.  If you plan to cruise on a boat, it is very important to know what your accommodations will be like so you can pack appropriately.  We packed very light and washed our clothes while on the boat and hung them in the sun on the deck.  There was NO room to store hard sided luggage.  I would recommend that you take soft duffel type luggage or backpacks that are easy to collapse while enjoying your tour.

One of the surprises we had just before leaving the United States, was the eruption of the La Cumbre Volcano on Fernandina Island which began in late March and flowing lava had made its way to the ocean just a few days before we arrived in the archipelago.  Our photography leaders, Bob and Diane, asked our captain if we could make a slight detour so we could see the flowing lava at night and he said yes!

Photograph of the lava flowing down the La Cumbre Volcano into the ocean

Up close view of the lava flowing into the ocean (with the help of a really big lens)

Up close view of the lava flowing into the ocean (with the help of a really big lens)

In contrast to the flowing lava on Fernandina Island's volcano, we saw a 'young' lava field filled with Pahoehoe and Aa lava types on Santiago Island.  

Santiago with young lava field juxtaposed to older lava field with green plants growing.

There are two types of lava, Pahoehoe which is slow moving with a  smooth or ropey surface and Aa lava which is fast moving with a very rough texture.  The hardened lava fields have very cool patterns. The pictures below are all of Pahoehoe type lava (can you tell that was John's favorite?).





The captain of the Nemo II was also happy to change course when we saw pods of dolphins swimming near the boat which happened twice.







There must have been 30-40 dolphins in the second pod we saw.  It was so cool to watch them swim along and under the boat!


Take aways from our trip to the Galapagos Islands...

1.    It is a very easy flight to Quito, Equador from the United States.  Given the unpredictability of the airlines currently, I would recommend giving yourself an extra day to get to Ecuador if you are planning a boat based visit to the Galapagos Islands as you don't want to miss your boat because your flight was delayed.

2.  Consider land based versus boat based visit.  When evaluating a visit to the Galapagos, there are two ways in which to see them by land or by boat.  There are a few islands that have people living on them, one of which is Santa Cruz.  There are hotels and restaurants on this island and you can then take day trips by boat to other islands.  The other option is a home base on a boat which then goes from island to island.  From our standpoint, you get to see way more from a boat.  So a boat based trip would be our recommendation.  However, if you get very bad motion/sea sickness, the land home base is definitely a good option.  We used meclizine during several points on our trip as we encountered rough seas going around different islands. 

3.  There are plenty of boats that cruise the Galapagos Islands of all different sizes and price points, choose one that best fits your goals and budget.  Also look at the itineraries for each boat to be sure that you will get to see the things that you want to see.  The itineraries for each boat are planned 2 years in advance and cannot be changed.  The purpose of the set itineraries is to prevent too many people visiting specific sites in a day and to spread out the numbers of visitors at each site. 

4.  If you choose a boat tour consider your luggage.  As I said above, the boat cabins, especially on the smaller boats, are very small and do not have a lot of space for storage of hard sided luggage.  I would recommend using a soft sided duffel type luggage as they can be folded up for easier storage once you have unpacked.

5. The Galapagos Islands are a great place for photography as the animals are not afraid of us.  We were able to get very close to the animals and birds.  There are, however, limits to how close we were allowed to get to the birds and animals.  We were instructed by our naturalist guide as to how close we could get.  There were times when the animals did get closer than 6 feet from us, but that was when the animals moved to us.  We had a close encounter with a sea lion who wanted to play and he/she kept coming up to us and at one point tried to take the GoPro out of our hands.  I also had so many sea turtles swim under me while I just floated on the surface.  The one thing everyone must remember, while the animals are not scared of you, they are still wild animals.

6.  Ecuador has done an excellent job of managing the preservation of the Galapagos Islands.  Entry fees for tourists go a long way to help further that goal.  So continue to visit and help Ecuador to maintain and support this fragile ecosystem for the benefit of the animal and so generations in the future will have a chance to visit.



Well that is a wrap on the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador.  We had a great time and learned a lot!  If this place isn't on your bucket list, it should be!  

Come back soon to see where our travels will take us next...


Shelly and John


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
  New Zealand     South Island  The South - including Invercargill, Bluff, the Catlins and Dunedin  Sunset from Bluff Hill Overlook The south was all about the wildlife:  birds, seals, penguins and of course more waterfalls.  We were lucky enough to see one Fiordland Yellow Crested Penguin in Milford Sound, but it was really far away.  So our visit to the southernmost reaches of the South Island was all about finding Penguins!   Were we successful in seeing penguins?  Stay tuned... Our first stop on the south coast was Cozy Nook and Monkey Island.  Cozy Nook was this charming little cove with rocks and ocean waves and little else. Cozy Nook  Monkey Island was a small little island just off the beach, that at low tide you can walk to and explore.  We were there pretty much at high tide and didn't want to wait 4-5 hours for low tide.  So we took a picture and moved on toward Bluff and Invercargil. Monkey Island The...
Read more
Image
  New Zealand         South Island  - Fiordland National Park, Including: Te Anau,  Milford and Doubtful Sounds  Milford Sound One of the most iconic sites in all of New Zealand is Milford Sound within Fiordland National Park.  So when putting this trip together, I knew that Milford Sound was a must see.  We also scheduled ourselves a significant amount of time in this area as the weather is notoriously unpredictable.  The second major consideration is where we were going to stay in order to be able to maximize our time exploring this National Park.  There are several options, including staying in Queenstown and Te Anau.  Milford Sound is approximately 4 hours from Queenstown and 2ish hours from Te Anau.  There are options to take helicopter or airplane flights into Milford Sound from Queenstown, as well as, bus day trips.  We decided, as we had a rental car, that we wanted to have the ability to adjust our ...
Read more
Image
  New Zealand     South Island  Mt. Cook/Aoraki National Park and Lake Tekapo Aoraki/Mt. Cook NP and Hooker Lake view from Hooker Valley Track The most amazing thing about New Zealand is the ever changing landscapes  practically every turn you make.  After leaving the southern coast, we traveled north and inland to the eastern side of the southern alps to spend some time in Lake Tekapo and Aoraki/Mt. Cook.   As we drove up the southeast coast on our way to Lake Tekapo, we stopped to check out the Moeraki boulders.   Moeraki boulders are large spherical rocks sitting along the beach.   They can be seen singly or in clusters predominantly in a linear fashion.   The boulders range from 2 to about 6 feet in diameter.   The boulders are grey/brown with septations that make them look like a turtle shell.  The boulders are formed from mud, silt and clay, while the septations are composed of calcite crystals. L...
Read more