Our Trip to The Galapagos Islands

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Visiting the Galapagos Islands was always on my bucket list. I've always loved David Attenborough's documentaries and being on the Galapagos Islands and in the surrounding waters was like being in a similar nature documentary. You don't have to be rich to go there - Sarah and I were backpacking around South America and we definitely couldn't afford a luxury cruise (which is one way to see the islands), so we looked into some budget options. Instead of the luxury cruise, we took a flight from Guayaquil to Baltra (one of the 18 main islands) and then got a ferry to Santa Cruz, where a lot of the dive companies operate from.

Before we arrived on the islands, we had prearranged a scuba-diving package through a company called Scuba Iguana and we found a hostel located close to the dive company. So after dropping our bags off there, we went for a walk to the beach. I remember a feeling of excitement as we walked along the narrow path, past the mangroves and arrived on the beach. Almost immediately we saw some of the giant marine Iguanas! They were brilliant - sunning themselves in the sand and allowing us to get up close and personal despite a few hisses.

While we were still enjoying the Iguana show I noticed a shadow on the water behind them which, on closer inspection, turned out to be an octopus! The octopus was only a few feet from the shore and right in front of me in the water. I was loving this place! As we weer walking back to our hostel, we also saw sea turtles swimming and loads of bright red and yellow crabs on the rocks too. A bit of food and a few beers later and it was lights out. Not a bad first day!

Over the course of a week, we did two dives each day and what a week it was. Each site offered something different including unique underwater landscapes. We maneuvered around reefs, cleaning stations and saw an abundance of marine life including sea lions, Galapagos sharks, white tip reef sharks, sea turtles, reef fish, sting rays, eagle rays, barracudas, eels, mobula rays.

The sites that we visited are listed below:

Floreana: One of the older volcanic islands - diving here felt of like flying around a planet as we hugged the sloped profile of the mound.

Gordon's Rock: This was brilliant and GR is considered one of the best dive sites in the central islands. It's an eroded volcanic crater with strong currents and surge. We weren't sure that we would be allowed to dive here, because it was for advanced divers but our previous dives had proved our skills to the guides. It was here at Gordon Rocks that we saw the large group of Hammerheads - about twelve of them circled below us!

While, Gordon's Rock and Floreana were incredible, the other sites were all great too: Seymour / Mosquera, Cousins, Punta Mosquera, Beagle, Daphne.

After ten dives over five days, we enjoyed another five days exploring the islands and basically hanging out on the Galapagos. I was glad to enjoy playing another game of soccer with some locals. We bought seafood to cook up at our hostel. Other nights we enjoyed restaurants and drinks together and with new friends that we met. One lad who we loved, was Luca from Italy. He was a good diver and a funny guy (he had no idea how funny he was, which of course made him even more funny.) Luca was a cross between Borat and Mr.Bean in a really, really cool way! We also got to meet up with Wade (Volunteer friend from Rio Bamba) and did an extra day of diving.

So...if you are thinking of going to The Galapagos Islands...take it from me: Do it!

Lonesome George

We met 'Lonesome George' (1910 – June 24, 2012), the male Pinta Island tortoise and the last known individual of the subspecies. Over the years, many attempts at mating Lonesome George had been unsuccessful, due to the lack of females of his own subspecies. This prompted researchers at the Darwin Station to offer a $10,000 reward for a suitable mate.(Wikipedia)

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