Galapagos Islands 2023

It's a couple hour flight from Quito to the Galapagos Islands with a short stop in Guayaquil to offload a few people and pick up some more. Before you can leave for the Islands, you have to pay a $20 tct fee (Transit Control), and it has to be paid in cash.

Fun Fact: Ecuador uses US currency, so that's $20 US. The ship's rep made sure we knew where to pay that and where to go and get our luggage bio-scanned before it was allowed to be loaded for the Islands.

We arrived at Galapagos airport, our bags were re-scanned, and we had to now pay a $100 park entry fee, and it must be in cash, good thing we knew about it in advance.

Before we could collect our luggage, we had to wait for a dog to climb all over luggage and sniff out any food, plants, or other biologicals. Can't be too careful about protecting this special place.

Once our bags were released from the dog search, the Yacht Anahi guys picked us up (one of them was Gallo, our guide). It was a short drive to the pier, and then a zodiac ride to the boat. The Ship we are on is called the Yacht Anahi, it is a motor driven Catamaran that has room for 16 passengers.

One interesting aspect of their sustainability plan is that they have a de-salinizer on the boat, salt water is converted to fresh water and is available from a water cooler style dispenser that we can re-fill our water bottles from.

After waiting for 3 years, and letting them hold on to our money, we got upgraded to one of the 2 rooms on the upper deck... it was a surprisingly nice large room.

Isla Santa Cruz

The Island we landed on is Baltra Island, adjacent to Santa Cruz, which is not the biggest of the islands, but the most populated. Our route would take us to 7 different islands, excluding the largest island which is Isla Isabela.

Our fellow passengers were a mix of Americans, Belgian, Dutch, Austrian and Thai travelers. We would all become very good friends over the 7 days that we traveled together.

Left to Right: Willy, Minke, Manuel & Valerie (rear), Bernine, Mats, Elke, Shelly & John, Davora, Stipo, Meaw, Norine & Dave, Craig

Our first stop is supposed to be Playa Las Bachas on Isla Santa Cruz, but a massive toy-carrier ship from a massive yacht has cut the line and we had to wait hours before we could get our fuel, so our evening walking excursion would be cut a little short.

The other ships waiting their turn The toy-hauler that cut the line ($$$)

While waiting for our turn to fuel, we watch sea lions and turtles from the deck.

Finally we get fueled and head over to Playa Las Bachas for our first official excursion of the trip. We are split up into 2 Zodiacs and roared over to a beach where we start seeing an assortment of wildlife.

Pelicans and Frigate birds share the beach with hundreds of Sally Lightfoot crabs.

After spending a short time on the beach Gallo leads us up a trail to see a single Pretty-in-Pink flamingo.

The Common Stilts and Great Blue Herons add to the list of birds we would see.

It's fascinating to see all the little tracks in the sand created by turtles laying their eggs along the beach.

Sadly our first excursion has ended and the zodiacs are coming back to get us, one last look back at the beach as the sky starts to change colour.

We kicked off the evening with a Captain's toast

¡Arriba, abajo, al centro, pa' dentro!
(followed by a good gyration of the hips)

We met Captain Tony and our crew, followed up by a summary of tomorrow's plans and Dinner!

After dinner we hung out with our new friends on the boat.
We watched the sunset, then later watched pelicans and sharks off the side of the boat.

We were rocked to sleep in our bed, the best night of sleep all trip.

Overnight we crossed the Equator on our way to Genovesa Island.

Side Note: Garmin InReach Explorer+

A couple years ago when we thought we were doing the trip, Norine bought me a Garmin InReach Explorer+ Satellite device. Since we would be spending so much time away from any type of civilization, Internet or other communication, it gave us a way to send emergency messages, quick texts and/or updates of where we were to friends and family. It also has a very unique tracking system, which can update your precise location and save it to an online map which can be accessed via a Facebook Page or website.

I turned it on and activated the tracking when we boarded the boat. Once we finished the trip I found out that many of our friends and family had been following along as we explored territories unknown. Pretty cool gift!

Jan 21

Isla Genovesa

Today's Plan

We woke up in Darwin Bay on Isla Genovesa, and had a wet landing for a walking excursion. What's a "wet landing" you might ask? Well, it means you are rolling off the side of the zodiac into knee high water, so you have your stuff in a waterproof dry bag, and have a towel to dry your feet, and then put shoes on once you are on shore.

While people are drying their feet, we can wander the beach area. There is many boobies, frigate birds, sea lions and babies of all sorts. You could walk right up to them and they just looked at you. These animals have no predators, so they aren't scared of us.

Swallow Tailed Gull

Nazca Boobies

Frigate Birds

Darwin's Finch Tropic Bird

Galapagos Mockingbird

Lava Heron

Red Footed Booby

If you haven't figured it out yet, these are Booby Babies.

Magnificent Frigate Birds

The little pools around the island are full of life.

Marine Iguana

Medium Ground Finch

Galapagos Dove

Back from the trail and there is even more Sea Lions on the beach.

It was a quick trip back to the boat and then we went snorkeling in the caldera. Sea Lions are playing with us, a large turtle swims by, and we see lots of other fish. The waters are quite murky, but it was full of life and the waters are warm.

At least Norine and I thought the water was warm, all the other passengers are fully dressed in wet-suits, but us 2 Canadians are just wearing our bathing suits and a T-shirt to protect us from the sun. We have developed a bit of a reputation amongst the other countries.

My underwater camera was fogging up a bit, and the water was murky, so not the greatest pictures, but hopefully these give you a sense of the experience. Thanks to Craig for some of the GoPro shots.

Once we were back on the zodiac, we had a good laugh with John, he had no idea that a Sea Lion was following him and nibbling on his Fins. We headed back to the boat for lunch, and the we shifted to another area for more snorkeling.

The spot is known as El Barranco (Prince Philip's Steps). The water is a little better here but still murky, but right away we saw a large turtle and a Ray. This snorkel adventure created a few jump scares for Norine.
Fun Fact: Did you know when you scream into a snorkel, everybody above the surface can hear you very clearly?

This little curious Sea Lion swam right underneath us, almost touching Norine with his whiskers as he blew past at full speed.

Seeing Manta Rays swim past was both amazing and beautiful.

Seeing the shark definitely struck a moment of fear, we could hear people yelling "Shark", and then saw it below. Immediately Norine was clutching my shorts, and climbing across me to keep me between her and the shark. According to Gallo it is a Galapagos Shark, and they are quite harmless to humans as they have such an abundance of food.

We had enough time to get back on board, have a shower, dry off, and then we did a dry landing at the Prince Philip's Steps of El Barranco. But first, Gallo had to convince a couple Sea Lions that were lounging there to move along so we could get up.

There is Boobies and Frigate birds everywhere, and we don't seem to be a bother to them at all.

The Brush/Trees along the trail are quite dense, and they are full of nesting birds and babies. The babies are just fascinated by us, watching our hand movements and staring as we take their pictures.They are so damn fluffy!

Gallo was very excited when he spotted a rare Galapagos Short Eared Owl on the horizon.We were all excited when we noticed one right beside the trail we were on. Apparently these owls have adapted from being nocturnal because their food source is mostly available during daylight hours.

The vegetation here is different than I expected, there is rocky desert like areas, volcanic surfaces, scrub brush, some flowers and a bunch of cacti, but no real trees of any height.

When we spotted another owl right along the trail, I thought Gallo was going to lose his mind.

Unlike the other Boobies, Red Footed Boobies are able to grasp onto branches and sit in trees.

Everybody (including the Sea Lion) waiting on the steps for our ride back to the boat.

That ended our first full day in the Galapagos, an amazing day on and around Isla Genovesa... Now all we had to do was eat dinner, watch the sunset, admire the stars, and reminisce about incredible adventures.