World Beauty: The Galapagos

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The last month of my trip …

I took a 2am bus from Cuenca to Guayaquil (Ecuador most populated city) to catch my 10 am flight to Baltra, Galapagos. When we got to the island, we had to pay a 100$ entrance fee. I thought everyone knew that but apparently not. An American women (how am I not surprised) with her 2 sons said: ‘’You guys are trying to rip us off! We are not paying that!’’ She was asking everybody around here if they knew it and they all said she but she continued her scene. After I passed the customs, I took a first bus, then a ferry and then another bus to Puerto Ayora, where I was going to stay for the next month. This is called South American style: Why build a bridge to only have to take one mode of transport. No! Better get a bus, a 5 minutes ferry and another bus. Anyways, this is where my Galapagos adventure starts. I will also do it short as I am a bit late …



Volunteering (Including Tortoises Ranch on June 23 and July 3)

I got to the hostel where I will be staying for a month. It was really nice. We could almost say it was ‘’Little Israel’’ as all the people there were from Israel. Majority of the people I met on the island were Israeli. Moreover, an Israeli guy I met told me there are over 20 000 young Israelis travelling around South America and I am not even surprised.

After travelling around Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador, the Galapagos ended up being sooooo expensive. I mean paying 8US$ for a box of cereals was crazy! To say a bit of money, every day I was eating the ‘’Lunch of the day’’ for 4US$. It was not the best thing (always rice and chicken) but it was filling at least.

Overall, my volunteering was a huge mess. I was supposed to work one month on environmental project around the island and everything looked nice on Internet and on paper. However, I didn’t do anything. A part of working two days in a tortoise’s ranch, the rest was a joke. The two days at the ranch were ok although they didn’t have much for me to do. The first time I went there, I was supposed to be a guide to English-speaking groups, but there weren’t any. The whole day they were feeding me (lol) and I was walking around and playing with tortoises. It was nice but not the point of my trip. However, I learned a lot about the tortoises. One of the things was that they eat ‘’Maracuya’’ one of my favorite exotic fruits. Therefore, when I was feeding them, I was eating more than what I gave them. The second time at the ranch was similar although I was there with another volunteer. We had to clean a bit around but that was it. Initially, I didn’t like that girl because I had to change rooms in the hostel as she didn’t want to sleep with guys but at the end we became friends (although no facebook friends … loll).

A part of the ranch think, I was sometimes teaching English to the staff of the hostel. This was so boring and not related to what I was supposed to do. They gave me some free tours but anyways. All the time the owner of the hostel was trying to sell me stuff. He said: No volunteering today, want to go on a trip? As my mom was coming later and the trip were expensive, I couldn’t afford them so I was staying in the hostel, often alone. As the islands are so expensive, when people go there, they stay a few days and do trips every day, so during the day I was often alone… At least the Copa America was going on so I had the chance to watch pretty much all the games!

The volunteering lasted two weeks, as I canceled everything when my mom got there. I found a private room in another other as I didn’t want to interact with the owner anymore.

During the two weeks of the volunteering, I went to the following places:

- Academy Bay (June 24): There was one of the free tours I got from the owner of the hostel. I went there with a couple from Guayaquil, Ecuador. It was an afternoon trip on a boat. It was beautiful and I saw my first sea lions and iguanas. A funny thing is that we went to see place where there was water between two big rocks. They gave us snorkeling gear but there was nothing in the water as plants and animals can’t pass through the rock.

- Charles Darwin Center (June 26 & July 6): I met an Israeli guy at the hostel (Ilay) and be became good friends. We went to the famous Charles Darwin Center to know more about the history of the islands and to see some tortoises and iguanas. We did the same thing on July 6^th but with another Israeli women with whom I became friend, but not with her 23 years old son. Strange! (Kristen) and we got along pretty well. We spent the day there tanning a (and burning). The beach is probably one of the most beautiful I saw in my life. The catch is that you have to walk 1 hour to get there (and another to get back) in the sun so it’s a good exercise. The name of the beach comes from the sea turtle that go there at night, dig a whole and leave their eggs.

- Tortuga Bay (June 27): The was another tout the owner of the hostel gave me for free. I went there with and American girl (Kristen) and we got along pretty well. We spent the day there tanning a (and burning). The beach is probably one of the most beautiful I saw in my life. The catch is that you have to walk 1 hour to get there (and another to get back) in the sun so it’s a good exercise. The name of the beach comes from the sea turtle that go there at night, dig a whole and leave their eggs.



WITH MOM

Mom Arrival & Being Sick (July 7 & 8)

On July 7^th, I went to pick up my mom at the airport. The same, the good friend I made (Ilay) was leaving. I was so happy to see my mom after 5.5 months. She was also happy but her first comment was: What, you still didn’t shave! The first night at the hotel, I felt so sick and had fever. The next day, we went to the hospital to see a doctor. The first two days my mom was there we spent them in bed! It is to be noted that seeing a doctor is free in Ecuador, even for foreigner and you don’t even need a travel insurance. Moreover, if they have medication in stock in the hospital, they will give it to you for free. At least I had some tennis (Wimbledon) to watch those two days!

Market and Charles Darwin Center (July 9)

The third day, I was still sick but we decided to take a walk as we couldn’t stay in our room anymore. We walked to the Charles Darwin Center and around the center of the town. As we didn’t move for 2 days, walking was so painful so we went back to our room to rest a little.

Tortuga Bay (July 10, 18 & 19)

I went three times with my mom to Tortuga Bay. Actually, I didn’t even expect to do it once with her as it takes an hour to get there. This trip I realized my mom is more in shape than I thought. She loved the place and we spent goof time there. We even saw some sea turtles. As both my mom and I love to play cards, our main activities on the beach were swimming (a little) and playing cards (a lot).

The three days we went to Tortuga Bay we also went out for good dinners. The first time, we had probably one of the best fishes ever, called Witch Fish. The second day, we probably had one of the worst fishes ever. It wasn’t cooked properly and we had to wait over an hour for it. The third time, we had delicious pizza. Even my mom during the two weeks there realized how food is not diversified in South America, which was my main problem during my six months. She thought they eat more fruits and vegetables but it is not the case.

San Cristobal Island (July 11, 12 & 13)

My mom and I decided to do three different islands during our stay and San Cristobal was the first one. It takes two hours to get there with a speed both (a lot of people get sick there, but we were fine). We got to our hotel in the last morning. We couldn’t check in right away so we decided to leave our bags and walk around a little. In the afternoon, we checked in and after decided to walk to the ‘’La loberia’’ a beach full of sea lions. It was interesting as the beach was full of lava rocks and it was hard to differentiate the rocks and the sea lions. Another good thing was that people can swim with (close to) the sea lions there. At night, we went out for supper and booked a private taxi tour for the following day.

The second day, for 60$US, we hired a taxi driver to take us to three main attractions of the island. On our way to the first stop, my mom wanted the taxi driver to stop in order to take a picture with a banana tree. The first stop was a tortoise’s breeding center. It was impressive but similar to the Charles Darwin Center. The second stop was a beach called Puerto Chino, which is supposed to be one of the best beaches there. When we got there, we were a bit surprised as the beach is not that nice and there are a lot of waves. Moreover, the weather was pretty bad which didn’t help. The third stop was the funniest. We stopped at a place where we were supposed to hike 10 minutes and then see the highest lake of the Galapagos, El Junco. My mom and hiked for 20 minutes and when we arrived at the top, it was way too foggy and rainy to see anything. Also, it was so slippery that be both fell on our ass a few times. As the last stop was a disaster, the taxi driver decided to make another stop for free. He stopped at a place where there is the biggest and oldest Cebu (a type of tree) in the world. It was impressive to go up there. There was even ‘’a basement’’ under the three. By the tree, there was a restaurant that made all the walls with over 20 000 beer bottles. At night, we went to eat out and had some sausages prepared on the BBQ.

The last day, in the morning, we went to the Interpretation Center which had a more thorough history of the Galapagos. After that, we walked to a lockout to see a special type of Galapagos birds but there weren’t any. At last, we went to a little beach. At 3pm, we had to take the boat to go back to Santa Cruz (main island). We wanted to go back to the same hotel but it was full so we had to look for another one. At night, we went out for dinner (hamburgers) and booked a tour to Bartholome island for the following day.

Bartolome Island (July 14)

We woke up pretty early and had to take a 1-hour bus to the Northern part of the island before taking a 2.5-hours boat to the island. The boat ride was pleasant, especially compared to the speed boat we had the day before. Bortholome island is known to be the most beautiful island of the Galapagos. There are not many animals there but the landscape is amazing. When we got there, it looked like we were on another planet with all the volcanic rock and strange landscape. We had a private tour of the island before the boat drove us to another place to do snorkeling. Snorkeling was so fun as we could see beautiful and colorful fished as well as sea turtles and other animals. After that, we got back on the boat to have lunch and get back to Santa Cruz.

Isabela Island (July 15, 16 & 17)

As for San Cristobal, it took about 2.5 hours on a speed boat to get to Isabela island. However, this island is less populated than San Cristobal; it looks almost empty. When we got to our hotel on the island, we had some problems with the rooms and what was included in the tour. At the end, we got more then what we should have. The first day, we saw flamingos and went to a tortoises breeding center where we saw some tortoises that had the shape of Dachshund dog. After that, we walked a little close to our hotel and went to bed.

The second day, we did a 5-hours (16 km) hike to the volcanoes El Chico and Sierra Negra. It was a rainy and there was mud everywhere. For this trip, my mom only brought flip-flops and sandals, no walking shoes so she had to rent some boots the do the hike as it would have been dangerous. The hike was amazing and I was so happy to do it with my mom. Initially, I wasn’t sure she would be able to do it but she was faster than many young guys. I was so proud of her at the end. I don’t have much to say about the hike, the pictures say everything!

The last day, we did a tour of a place/island called ‘’Las Tintoreras’’. This was probably my favorite place of all the Galapagos as while doing snorkeling, we saw penguins (so cute), sharks (less than a meter away), groups of birds, rays, etc. It was amazing. We went with a group of 16 and everybody did snorkeling but my mom stayed on the boat. She actually got a private boat tour of the places around as the driver was so nice. In the afternoon, we took a speed boat back to Santa Cruz.




This ends my trip with my mom and my 6-months South America trip as a whole. I spent 6 amazing months, met amazing people and saw amazing places. Hope everyone that read my blog enjoyed it and now wants to see more of the three beautiful countries I visited. On our way back to Canada, both my mom and I had issues with American airlines, but I guess it became a norm …

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