The Most Touristy Thing I’ve Done
For those who don’t already know, every year I take my daughter on a trip for her birthday rather than buying her stuff that she doesn’t really need. We have gone to some amazing places together. This year, for her 22nd birthday, I took her to the Galápagos Islands.
Simply being here with her in the Galápagos may be the most expensive and touristy thing I’ve done on this adventure so far.
Granted, I visited the pyramids and saw the King Tut exhibit in Cairo. I danced the tango and went to Igazú Falls in Argentina. I even flew over the Nasca Lines in Perú.
Except for the Nasca Lines, most of those involved just walking around and looking at stuff. Really cool stuff. Even bucket list stuff. But still mostly just walking around and looking at stuff.
Visiting the Galápagos is not something one does casually. Not even if you wanted to.
Getting to this archipelago 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador involves a 90-minute, $250-per-person flight. Before you can even get your boarding passes, you have to buy a $20 “ecology ticket”.
Then you have to get all of your bags, including carry-ons, x-rayed and scanned.
After all that you can finally check your bags and get your boarding passes.
Upon arrival, you will have to pay a $100-per-person “conservation fee” for admission to the islands.
All of these fees are cash only, by the way. They will not accept debit or credit cards.
Your bags will then be scanned again.
Once you do all that and make it out of the tiny airport, there is a free shuttle bus to take you to the ferry port. (Rejoice because this is one of the very few free things you will get to do in the Galápagos.)
The islands have two airports. Each is on its own island. What the Ecuadoran government did was place the airports on two very small and flat islands. That limits and isolates the ecological stress. Nothing else is on these islands so you have to take a boat to one of the larger islands. The boat ride will cost $1.
We flew in to Baltra Island then took the only ferry to nearby Santa Cruz Island. Once there, you must board a bus. There are several buses and you have to find the one that’s going to the correct destination. There are no signs so you’ll have to talk to someone. For the most part, they speak only Spanish but if you don’t simply saying the name of the town you want to get to should be enough to get you onto the correct bus.
Bus fare is $2.
Both Baltra Island and the port area of Santa Cruz Island are surprisingly desert-like. This is not at all what one might expect from tropical islands that lie almost exactly on the equator.
As your bus drives the 8-10 miles across the island to the main town of Puerto Ayora, you can see the vegetation gradually change. You’ll be crossing from the leeward side to the windward side and it all begins to look more tropical, if still desert-tropical.
There is no bus station.
The bus will pull up to a small intersection next to a dirt lot. Everyone gets off and all luggage gets unloaded. From there, you’re on your own.
Even being the largest town on the island, Puerto Ayora is very small. From end to end along the shoreline it’s perhaps a mile at its longest point. From the water to the furthest point inland is probably not ¼ mile.
More on this adventure to come…
