The Amazing and Incredible Galapagos Islands – Part 1

I’m going to stay it straight away. The Galapagos Islands are the most amazing and incredible place we have seen in our lives. We spent 8 days here cruising around the islands on a boat, which meant we got to visit some of the more distant islands. But even in the populated islands, and near ports there are still more animals than you’ll see in any other place.

What makes the Galapagos so special is that the animals are almost completely unafraid of people. Which means you can get really close to them, and they’ll happily continue going about their business. Now there is a rule that says you’re supposed to stay 2 metres away from the animals, but it’s sometimes impossible to follow. Like when birds build their nests right next to the marked walking path, or baby sea lions come up to you to sniff you. I’m not sure if I can describe the experience properly, so I’ll keep the words to a minimum and I hope the pictures can do a better job. Enjoy!

Day 1 – Santa Cruz

On our first day we were greeted at the airport by an iguana wandering around, and by another iguana, four sea lions, a heron and about 20 frigate birds that call the dock area home.

Once we got on board our boat we were off to a nearby beach for our first encounter with what the Galapagos had to offer. The beach walk was probably only 500m long but it was packed full of bright red crabs crawling all over the rocks, pelicans and boobies diving into the sea to catch fish, turtle nests packed together high up on the beach, as well as lots of baby sharks in the water trying to steal leftovers from the bigger animals.

Day 2 – North Seymour & Bartolome

We were pretty amazed by all the animals we had seen on our first day, but it was nothing compared to what was waiting on North Seymour Island. This island is a bird paradise, where you have birds making their nests right next to the walking trail, or performing their mating dances right within touching distance of all the people watching and just generally not caring one bit about any of the people nearby. Even when we stepped off the boat onto the landing spot, the black rocky steps came to life as hundreds of black crabs scurried to the sides of the stairs.

Bartolome Island is a pretty new piece of land. It’s so new that you can still see all the lava tubes, and no plants grow on the volcano yet because it’s too barren. But it does mean you get to see plenty of lava formations all over the island.

Day 3 – San Salvador

San Salvador was another great day for animals, this time it was mainly sea lions. Best of all, since we were there at the right time of year, baby sea lions!

Day 4 – Isabela & Fernandina

By day 4 we made it to one of the furthest of the Galapagos islands: Fernandina. This is where we saw the most marine iguanas in the one spot, as well as plenty more sea lions. There were so many iguanas here that you literally were tripping over them as you walked along the rocks. It didn’t help that they look just like the rocks they’re sitting on, and that they’re so lazy they won’t move when people come near. So you have to step over them to get around. I’m sure quite a few iguanas must get stepped on.

We also had a couple of playful sea lions here too. One was jumping in front of our inflatable zodiac like a dolphin and another one was playing fetch with himself in the water. He had a stick in his mouth and would put his head above the water to throw it, then race over to where it had landed and do it all over again.

This has been a little taster of the first half of our Galapagos trip. It was really hard to whittle the photos down to just enough to fit into a blog post. In the first 4 days I took about 750 photos, got it down to 340 keepers, down to a shortlist of 49 for this post, and eventually down to 26 that actually made it. That should give you an idea of how many amazing things you can see when you go to the Galapagos.

For Part 2 of our trip in the Galapagos click here.