Galapagos – Oct 2025

After the Amazon, due to flight schedules, we had a night the highly dangerous city of Guayaquil. Regarding Guayaquil the Australian Government advised to “reconsider your need to travel due to high level of gang-related crime and threat of kidnapping.” I shouldn’t joke about it – and we certainly didn’t court danger. We had one of only a couple of nights for the whole trip in a proper hotel, with a shuttle to and from the airport, and our only excursion was to the large mall across the road.

Having survived that we then flew on to the Galapagos. We got our first iguana while we were walking from the plane to the airport terminal. Our next animal encounter was in the luggage collection area – we all had to stand by and watch two dogs sniff everyone’s luggage before we were allowed to collect it. It’s then a bit of a convoluted process to get to main town of Puerto Ayora – a bus to the canal, then a boat across the canal, then a cab! All to be paid in cash.

We had two nights in Puerto Ayora where it became obvious how easy the wildlife was going to be to spot – sea lions in cycle lanes and marine iguanas on the footpath. Coming from the jungle where binoculars were critical as everything was at quite a distance this was a welcome change!

Following our time in Puerto Ayora we did an 8-day cruise on a boat with 13 passengers (including us), a guide and about 7 crew, and visited 6 different islands. Across the Galapagos there are maybe 50 sites over about 14 islands that the boats can visit, and all the boats do a 21 day loop, visiting 2 sites a day. There’s a maximum of 4 boats at any one site at a time – though we were often the only boat at our sites (we were there in the off-season if Galapagos has such a thing). At most sites we would do a couple of activities – depending on the site, walking, snorkelling, a ride in an inflatable boat, or kayaking.

We had the fun of the boat generator breaking down on day 3. So we were without power for about 12 hours while a speedboat was dispatched with parts and engineer. No power meant the kitchen couldn’t cook anything (sandwiches for dinner), our below deck windowless room had no light or aircon (so most of the below deck guests slept outside or in the guest lounge that night), no showers (so sleeping was a bit sticky as we’d been swimming that afternoon). Fortunately it got resolved during the night! And the engineer stuck around on board in case anything else went wrong – and got his first ever visit to Genovesa as a bonus.

Other than tropical fish, things we spotted while snorkelling included: sea lions, green sea turtles, penguins, flightless cormorants, pelicans, sharks and rays. Most of these came within a metre of us at one time or another while we were swimming!

While we did see a lot of sea-life, the thing we saw the most of was the birds. Variously spotted from panga (dinghy) rides, walks or kayaks. Genovesa Island was an absolute highlight. We were there in breeding season and the birds were thick on the ground – literally. They were all around, metres away, and you had to watch your step, as there would regularly be adults or chicks on the path. The frigatebirds were also impressive – and huge, like a mini-pterodactyl. They don’t dive for fish themselves, but they will chase other birds who have caught fish. We watched two of them catch a tropicbird in flight by the tail and shake it to get its fish!

Sea life didn’t really agree with me, while the wildlife was outstanding, the rest of the time on the boat was more a matter of endurance. With the benefit of hindsight I now understand a lot more about stabilisers and why you might want them on a boat. We had chosen a small boat deliberately, and don’t regret that choice at all, but a future trip would be on a catamaran!