A Dream Trip To Peru & Ecuador: The Galapagos
October 21, 2009 by Melanie
Filed under Ecuador, Peru, South America, The Americas, The Galapagos
Continued from
A Dream Trip to Peru & Ecuador: Machu Picchu
and
A Dream Trip to Peru & Ecuador: Cusco
*A few Junes ago, my parents took their dream trip to Peru & Ecuador through a U.S. tour company, Adventure Life.
Kicker Rock, San Cristobal, Galapagos Photo by Suzan Wynne
The third leg of my parents’ dream vacation to Peru and Ecuador was a cruise to the Galapagos Islands… aka Ground Zero for Evolution…aka Yes, Please.
My parents officially booked their Peru & Ecuador trip through Adventure Life, but the Galapagos portion was officially handled by Klein Tours. A representative from the latter met my parents and their tour group at the Baltra Airport after a blessedly uneventful flight from Ecuador’s largest city, Guayquil.
Baltra, technically an Ecuadorean naval base, has the most human inhabitants of any island in the region; its nonetheless-tiny airport is most visitors’ gateway to the Galapagos. All visitors must pay a $100 US entrance fee for the Galapagos; Ecuador uses United States currency. Many tourists choose to stay in one of Baltra’s waterfront motels and take day trips to other islands, and tour groups come to the port here to board their boats.
Sea lions on Baltra bench - Photo by James Preston
With a few hours to kill before boarding their own tour boat, my parents’ group was taken to explore the Charles Darwin Research Station on the nearby island of Santa Cruz. The Station proved the perfect appetizer for the journey ahead: essentially a Galapagos zoo, it features a cross-section of the unique flora and fauna found in this remote part of the Earth.
Klein Tours' Coral II (in front) - Suzan Wynne
For my parents’ cruise group, Klein Tours booked the Coral II, a small boat with space for only 20 passengers. Over the next six days, my foodie folks found the meals glorious, their fellow tourists terrific company, and the staff knowledgeable and helpful. As a bonus, their steward made what may well be the world’s best Pisco Sours.
Their group’s small size, combined with favorable wind and weather, enabled them to add a couple of brief stops to their itinerary; altogether they visited seven islands, only two of which were inhabited by humans.
As Darwin famously discovered, each Galapagos island has its own unique geology, plants and animal life. For instance, around some of the islands, the water is bathtub warm while at others, deep currents leave it freezing cold. On Rabida, an entire island composed of iron oxide, even the sand is red.
Galapagos Island terrain photos, clockwise from top L: Bartolome (putneymark), Rabida (Jeremy Hetzel), Santa Cruz (Suzan Wynne), Floreana (kylemac)
As my parents snorkeled, swam and hiked on each island, they were constantly bombarded with sights they could scarcely have imagined…outside of, maybe, National Geographic:
- a seal giving birth and a flock of frigates eating the placenta
- marine iguanas, tinged red from russet algae, lying on top of each other for warmth in the sunrise, snorting salt and then slowly coming to life
- broods of fuzzy, awkward sea-bird chicks screeching for food
Photos by Eric Chan
- fire-engine red crabs skittering up and over slippery rocks
- cacti growing straight out of long-cooled lava
- baby turtles making their way to the water just after birth
- herons and egrets perched by shorelines and stretching their wide wings
Photos by, L to R: Roy and Danielle, Suzan Wynne, Dag Peak
- a freshwater lake on top of a volcanic mountain where frigates wash themselves
- whole flocks of enormous pelicans at rest
- a volcanic blow hole spewing water high over the island
Photos: L and middle by Jeremy Hetzel; R by Suzan Wynne
- the mating rituals of blue footed boobies and albatrosses
- the greetings of penguins and seals who viewed people as nothing more than other animals clambering over the black rocks
- whales diving and breaching not far out to sea
On L, blue footed-booby (Suzan Wynne); middle and R, albatrosses and Galapagos penguins (Aaron Logan)
After their last morning on the Coral II, but before heading to the airport to catch their flight to Quito, they and a few others accompanied their tour guide to the Santa Cruz highlands; here they found a misty forest, volcanic craters and huge, wild tortoises roaming free. While munching happily on some wild passion fruit that grew all around the area, my parents and their group learned how the islands’ local coffee is grown.
I believe the word my mom used was:
“Heaven.”
Santa Cruz Highlands - Photo by Benson Schliesser
Continued in
A Dream Trip to Peru & Ecuador: Quito
See also:
TWT Travel Binder: Ecuador
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