Galapagos – Boat Tour

The best way to visit Galapagos is doing a boat tour, to sleep aboard and each day to see a different island. I decided to get a small tour (4 days-3 nights) and then stay some more time on the last stop, Santa Cruz Island. As the Baltra airport was closed for repairing, all the boat tours departure from San Critobal Island, not so touristy but with a functioning airport.

The first day we visit Lobos Island. As the name says it, there are a lot of “lobos”, sea lions. It was a cloudy and rainy day but we could walk on the volcanic rocks and see the famous “fragatas” that fill their red throat with air to call their female. After that, we did snorkel to see the sea lions in the water. It is impressive their movements. They are like dolphins but a lot more domesticated. They play, jump, get really close by and run away. Wonderful!

During that night we sailed to the Española Island, where we saw more sea lions and marine iguanas. On a walk around the island we could see a great diversity of birds, specially the famous albatross. We also walked to a hole in the rocks called the “soplador”. The tide change makes water to gush out very high. After the walk, we snorkeled to see fishes and swim with sea lions. Then we head off to Floreana island.

The third day, really early, we visit Floreana Island. Here the main attraction was a group of Flamingos that cannot be seen on other islands. We also went to a white sand beach where we could find turtles eggs on the sand. We did the best snorkel of the tour around some rocks, a place called “Corona del Diablo”. We could see a great diversity of fishes, rays and see lions. Then we went to Santa Cruz Island to visit the Charles Darwin Station. There I abandoned my boat friends that returned to the airport in San Cristobal Island. I decided to stay a week longer for diving.