If I’ve ever felt spoilt on this trip it’s go to have been here. So hard to describe this amazing place so some pictures may be better…
That’s a Dolphin under the rigging!
It’s quite strange at first because you quickly find out that people do live on these islands, at least 4 of them have human populations albeit very small and contained outside of Santa Cruz. There are two ways you can see the Islands, by staying in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz and getting day trips out to various islands or by taking a boat trip which I think can be 4,5 or 8 days usually. We went for the 8 day trip which is pretty much the longest you can do and I’m so glad we did. Every day, just as you thought you couldn’t see anything better or stranger or more bizarre, there it was!
Luck is needed to see some of these amazing animals but mostly they are all just there waiting on their islands for you to stroll up to. Three unique things about this place I think, one is that fact that none of the animals, birds or fish have a fear of humans, each island (there are over 20) has different things on it, most unique to each island and lastly that there is such a difference in the landscapes of each island, you can go from tropical jungle to rocky outcrop to the most (and I really do mean most) idyllic white sand beach to 100 year old desolate lava flow\moonscape in the space of a days sailing.
We chose the Angelique (below) as our boat and I’d definitely recommend it even though it was noisy, smelt of diesel and the water pump failed! It had such character, the crew and cook were brilliant and it really looked the part.
