Our second stop was the Galapagos. I could write pages about the inefficiencies and constant tourist checks and taxes required to get to the Galapagos, but suffice it to say that there are a lot of hoops to jump through. It’s great that there are taxes to help protect this amazing part of the world, but it’s not done in a very clear or efficient manner. I’m guessing people who go with a cruise company have much of this taken care of for them.
We arrived in Santa Cruz, which is the main island (San Cristobal also has an airport). It’s very touristy along the main boardwalk, and the locals seem pretty sick of tourists, for entirely understandable reasons. But the vibe was not super welcoming.
We were there for three weeks and only found the “real” part of the town the last few days. It’s not a big city but the locals area is pretty well-hidden from tourists.
The currency is US dollars and it’s not cheap. If there is one thing you take away from this post, it’s that you must bring A LOT of cash. Basically nowhere takes credit cards, even for big ticket items like a day trip that’s $250/person. And the main cash machine will only allow $300/person/day. We were nearly short of cash a few times.
Groceries are extremely expensive especially closer to the dock, at least US prices if not 2-3x. The cheapest sit down meals you’ll find are $5 for soup and a main dish, often fried chicken or fish. Meals closer to the ocean are around $20/person. I did a lot of cooking and we eventually found a great roasted chicken place and a nighttime empanada spot, but the options were pretty limited. The best deal was the fresh tuna from the market on the malecon, where the seals and pelicans compete for scraps every morning. It’s worth going whether or not you want to buy anything. But for $5/pound, the tuna is a spectacular deal.
The boats between islands are speed boats that go across the open ocean. While this is awesome in the sense that we saw a whale once, it meant that on one of our trips almost all 40 people on the boat were vomiting at the same time. It was pretty bad. The boat hand indicated this was not an uncommon issue. Try to sit near the rear where it’s not as bumpy and where you might be able to see the horizon. And take Dramamine. Kids too.
We had planned for the kids to go to a private Spanish tutoring school on Santa Cruz, the main island. They went for two days and 1. Really disliked the teaching style (four hours of straight worksheets a day) and 2. There had been a miscommunication with the school, and the lessons were actually twice as expensive as I had planned. We decided to take the kids out of that school and have them continue lessons with their online tutor from Colombia while taking hour-long excursions every day in which they had to practice their Spanish at the markets and restaurants.
The benefit of not having the kids in a structured school was that we were able to island-hop. Island hopping is easy. It’s a hub and spoke system with Santa Cruz as the anchor island. There’s a morning and afternoon ferry, and they periodically fill up so you might want to buy a few days in advance if you have a tight schedule. It’s about $40/person each way. You can go to the four main islands via speedboat for a fraction of the cruise price. We saw so much amazing wildlife during our time there. Don’t let the $15k/person cruise price tag dissuade you from going to the Galapagos if you have your heart set on it. Particularly if you have 2-3 weeks, you can really spend time relaxing and have amazing wildlife experiences.
We went to:
- Isabela
- swam with sharks
- saw a penguin
- San Cristobal, our favorite island
- Saw a sea lion and her newborn pup next to her fresh placenta, pretty amazing
- The best snorkeling (though very cold) with sea lions, sea turtles, tons of colorful fish
San Cristobal was by far our favorite island and where we would go back to. It was more relaxed than the more transit and tourist-heavy Santa Cruz but had more amenities then Isabela. Also just truly incredible wildlife and snorkeling. The food was cheaper and higher quality also.
Food: 3
Budget: 3
Wildlife: 10
Vibe: 3