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Alan’s View

April 2010

On The Road: The Galapagos Islands

Four hundred iguanas. Recently, my wife and I were editing photos from our trip to the Galapagos Islands. We’re tourist photographers, so by “editing” I mean taking a quick pass to delete bad photos and obvious duplication. We were able to cut the file down from 1600 images to 1100, and by rough estimate we were still left with 400 shots of those adorable (in a Kermit-the-Frog way) lizards. Admittedly, all iguanas are not created equal­: There are land iguanas, marine iguanas, and hybrids—but that many photos in only six days gives you some idea of how mesmerizing this unique habitat is.

The travel experience of going to Galapagos Islands National Park is similar to doing an African safari. Nature is protected in an extraordinary way, and we visitors are escorted (without exception) through a series of Kodak moments to observe animals who couldn’t care less about us humans. We encountered on these volcanic islands giant tortoises, albatrosses, frigates, blue-footed boobies, and the aforementioned iguanas. Much of what you’ll see in the Galapagos exists nowhere else on the planet, including the manner in which this huge park is managed.

Most people will get to the Galapagos by flying from Guayaquil, Ecuador, which is reachable either by one-hour flight from Quito (four hours from Miami) or nonstop from New York (approximately six hours nonstop). You’ll likely have to spend a night in Guayaquil—there’s little reason to spend more time there—unless you take the new Aero Galapagos red-eye flight from JFK that connects to flights to the islands. The Hotel Oro Verde is your best option and its restaurant is decent enough (oroverdehotels.com).

Small cruise ships, the predominant way to visit the islands, leave from either San Cristobal or the much-preferred Baltra—a hop, skip, and a ferry from Santa Cruz Island—on either three-, four-, or seven-night itineraries. Keep in mind that with the tight control of Galapagos tourism, the likelihood that you’ll want to visit a number of islands, and the fact that one cannot visit most islands without a naturalist guide, gives cruise ships a distinct advantage (and the guides on board the better ships are some of the best on the islands). Here’s the dilemma: Although comfort is adequate, unless food isn’t particularly important to you, seven days on even the best of these ships is too much time. Also, the routine of morning excursion, lunch, afternoon excursion with the same guides and groups is great for four days, but starts to get tiresome after that. On the other hand, four nights in the Galapagos is not enough.

Luckily, there’s a perfect solution: Staying at the Royal Palm (royalpalmgalapagos.com) on Santa Cruz Island, about a 20-minute drive outside the main town. This four-star-plus hotel has very attractive and comfortable villas, a good restaurant (worth having two dinners at), and allows you to spend a couple of extra days exploring the area according to your own routine. The Finch Bay Hotel (finchbayhotel.com), a definite notch down, is an alternative that has the advantage of being in town. Either hotel can arrange reasonably priced private charters to explore the islands (the highlight of our trip) or guides to help you catch up on the sights on Santa Cruz Island. More than likely, for two people, your days at the hotel will be less expensive than the cruise days.

Cruise ships (we didn’t investigate 16-passenger motor yachts or sailboats) generally fall into two categories, small (40+ passengers, with the Eclipse getting the best reviews) and large (approximately 100 passengers). We looked at the latter category and narrowed the choice to Celebrity Xpedition, Legend, and Explorer. We chose the latter but ended up on the Legend because the Explorer didn’t get out of dry dock in time for our cruise! 

The Legend’s four-night cruise spends a day and a half at easily-visited Santa Cruz Island stops (if you stay at the hotel), so it makes more sense to do its three-night itinerary with highlights that include: North Seymour Island (frigates, blue-footed boobies, sea lions, and marine iguanas); Dragon Hill on Santa Cruz (flamingos and land iguanas);  Cormorant Point on Floreana (flamingos); and Suarez Point on Espanola (blue-footed boobies laying eggs, sea lions, crabs, and marine iguanas). If you want to take a half-day off, skipping either Carrion Point, Santa Cruz, or San Cristobal are good opportunities.

When staying on Santa Cruz island, choose from these three full-day excursion options: 1) Charles Darwin Research Station (giant tortoises), a walk around the town of Puerto Ayora, a Lava tunnel, and a tortoise farm; 2) private yacht charter to Bartholemew Island—en route you can watch or even snorkel with sea lions and sharks—to get the most photographed view of the Galapagos; and 3) private charter to North Plazas Island, then to Turtle Bay to watch the tortoises mate.
Of course, there’s always the pool or the spa.

Whether it is because the distance seems long, or because Peru is in the neighborhood, many visitors (including us) combine the Galapagos voyage with a visit to the amazing Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. However, these two experiences are so different that you do your memory a disservice by combining them into one trip. Quito, Ecuador, too, is part of the Inca experience and would best be explored on your trip to Peru rather than the Galapagos. I highly recommend that you relish the Charles Darwinian Galapagos adventure all on its own.

And while I’m at it, if there is one thing I could recommend to guarantee that the Galapagos will be an experience of a lifetime, it is to go there before you go on a safari!  Unless you have a giant turtle or iguana fetish, the casual nature lover will likely be slightly more taken by the African experience. But make no mistake about it, the Galapagos is a bucket list trip. As always, I hope these suggestions help you get the most from your journey. And please, once you’ve returned, let me know how many iguana photos you took!