The Great Galapagos Adventure

Three hours ago our plane took off from José Joaquín de Olmedo International Airport in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Now we were nearing our destination. As the plane starts its descent, the only thing you could see in all directions was water. We started getting dangerously close to the water, and then within the blink of an eye, we were over land, and safely on the ground.

After we left the airplane, and had gotten through the long line in the airport, we left the airport, and headed to a group of tour guides. We found the guides holding a sign with the name of the yacht that we would be on, and came over to introduce ourselves. “Welcome to the Galapagos Islands.”, Freddy, one of guides said.

A few minutes later, when everyone else had arrived, we were told to go to a bus that was waiting for us. While we were driving to the docks, I was looking out the window, at the island of San Cristobal.

The next day, we went to Darwin Bay, on Genovesa island. The yacht that we were on, wasn’t able to dock, we had to take a landing craft. On the landing craft, we were told that because this island doesn’t have a dock, this was going to be a wet landing, and that we would have to take off our shoes. When we got close to shore, two crew members that were with us, jumped out of the boat, and held it in place, while the rest of us climbed over the edge, and walked to shore.

When we got to shore, we saw more birds than we could count. We saw boobie birds, with their colorful feet, frigate birds, with their bright read pouch under their beak, and many more species of birds, that I do not remember the names of. We had a pleasant walk along the beach, with our guide pointing out different birds, and their nests. When we were done, we went back to the spot of the wet landing, and waited for a few minutes for out landing craft to return from the yacht. When it arrived, two crew members held it in place, as we climbed aboard using the side ladder.

Next came Santa Cruz island. We went to black turtle cove, and had a panga ride. In order to get the animals closer to us, our guide turned off the motor, and started steering us with an oar. We saw lots of animals, including sea turtles, golden rays, sharks, and lots of fish. Not only was it exciting to see all the animals, it was also exciting to see the huge mangrove trees around you.

Fernandina, and Isabela islands were next. On Fernandina island, we say lots, and lots, of marine iguanas, warming up, on the rocks. We also say snakes, and lots of birds, as well as massive Galapagos Tortoises. On Isabela island, we had a hike and saw lots of marine iguanas.

The next day, we went to Tagus Cove, also on Isabela island, where we went snorkeling with penguins. Those small penguins, were definitely one of my favorite parts of this vacation. They are very unique, because the are the only penguins, that live in the northern hemisphere.

After that, came Santiago island, and with it, Egas Port. We had a nice hike across a open lava field. We saw the quick footed galapagos lava lizard, as well as the Galapagos sea lion, galapagos hawks, and lots of other animals. The cool part about the hike, was that there were large holes near the ocean, with water in them, and inside those hiles, you could find sea lions, resting on rocks inside the holes.

After the cruise was over, we went back to the airport, and ended our amazing adventure, to the Galapagos Islands.