Our Galapagos Christmas
We have always spent Christmas with our families, but this year would be different. It would be our first Christmas spent together and our first Christmas away from home and our loved ones, which was going to be difficult, so we opted for a unique Christmas destination: the Galápagos Islands.
We had just finished a 21 day tour through Peru and were feeling pretty jaded from the experience. It was a long time, a busy itinerary and the group dynamics wasn’t what we had expected, so we were questioning whether another tour was the right thing to have booked. Nevertheless, we tried to go into it with an open mind and were both excited for our next adventure.
We met our tour group in Quito, Ecuador on Christmas Eve for a welcome meeting, and found out that we would be travelling with nine other girls. We couldn’t decide whether this would be a dream or a nightmare for Nav! First impressions were that they seemed to be nice group, with a range of ages and nationalities (Swiss, Australian, Norwegian and British), so we were looking forward to getting to know them better over the course of the week.
Our guide who hosted the meeting, and who would be taking us to the airport the following day, was anything but helpful. So after the briefing meeting, we were left to our own devices for dinner on Christmas
With a 3.30am alarm set for the next day, we opted for a Dominos pizza in bed to curb Nav’s pizza craving and watched a sobering documentary about Aleppo, Syria on BBC world news (the only English speaking channel available)! This certainly was shaping up to be a different kind of Christmas!
On Christmas Day, we started our Galapagos adventure and flew to the largest populated island, Santa Cruz. Here we were greeted by our local guide, and were soon on a bus, then a boat, then another bus to our campsite for the night. We had a little glimpse of the wildlife with a Pelican and a sea lion near the port, but the rain and fog meant that we didn’t really get an opportunity to take in the views. Initial impressions, it wasn’t what we had expected and was much more barren than we had anticipated.
As we drove to the highlands (only 500m above sea level), the landscape started to change; it became much greener and more agricultural. We arrived at our campsite, which was basic but adequate as expected. We also welcomed five more people to our group. Nav was happy to see this included two couples from Germany and Holland, so he was rescued from being the only male!
After lunch, we headed to a view point and looked across the expanse of the island. We learnt that within the Galapagos there are lots of micro climates, and we could see this from our view point, with parts in shade, others in sun and a range of foliage.
Our next stop was to see the tortoises, a huge highlight for Laura. These giant creatures were amazing. To us they looked prehistoric and one of the closest animals to dinosaurs that we have on the planet today.
That evening, as the group started to relax and get to know each other, we decided to sprinkle as much Christmas spirit as we could over our evening meal. One girl was given mini Christmas crackers and napkins from a friend so we laid the table with these, some of us had Christmas hats so we donned these, and we played Christmas music Laura had downloaded for the occasion.
We tortured ourselves by describing to each other the Christmas feasts our Mam’s would have cooked up, and very much doubted anything could compare. Dinner was an Ecuadorean Christmas meal, with soup to start, pork, potatoes and vegetables for main and a panocotta type desert. We also shared a bottle of wine Laura received in a secret Santa from the previous tour. Not a traditional Christmas, but certainly a unique one for us both.
After dinner, we headed to the bonfire and sat around telling scary stories like a group of teenagers, before heading to bed before 10pm after our long day!
The next morning, we packed up and headed to the Charles Darwin Conservation Centre. On top of seeing the breeding centre for the tortoises, it was also incredibly interesting to learn more about the challenges the islands face, and the work done to actively preserve the unique habitat. For example, wild cats and goats brought to the islands long ago by buccaneers are predators and food source competitors for the tortoises; both threatening the species, so there is work ongoing to eradicate them from the island.
We then made our way to the port (via a coffee shop and lunch!) and watched the fishmonger on the shore. As the fresh fish are caught, the fish monger is preparing and selling the fish, right on the sea front. Not only are they supplying the local businesses but also the local wildlife too – we watched pelicans and sea lions eagerly waiting to be thrown the scraps!
What most captured us about the island is the free roaming wildlife and that it is a natural way of life for the locals. As we walked to the port, an iguana was casually crossing the road and decided to stop for a rest in the middle of the road, literally stopping traffic and causing a traffic jam until he was eventually coaxed to move on.
Our next destination was to be Floreana Island. We hopped on a lovely boat and four of us had the opportunity to sit up the top and admire the views over the two hour crossing. The views of the ocean were beautiful. The same could not be said for Laura! She took the brunt of the sea wind – her chubby cheeks flapping and her hair whipped up into a birds nest!
We were also lucky enough to cross a group of 20-30 dolphins who swam with our boat for a while. This is Nav’s favourite animal and this was the first time he had seen them in the wild. They were so beautiful and playful, we could have watched them for hours.
We eventually approached Floreana Island. The island itself looked prehistoric, like a scene from Jurassic Park and we were excited to see what it had to offer as this would be home for the next two nights.
Floreana has the smallest population of the inhabited islands in the Galapagos, with only 150 inhabitants. We later learned that it was first inhabited by Germans during the First World War, and there are still descendants living on the island. In order to support the community as a whole, the benefits of tourism are spread across the community, with small groups of us staying in different ‘hotel’ rooms provided by different families next to their own homes, and meals provided by different family restaurants.
To make the most of the rest of the day, we headed to the beach, had a quick dip in the cold sea and watched the sunset, whilst chugging a bottle of red wine from the bottle!
The next day, we took a walk to the highlands to learn more about the history of the Galapagos, and then spent the afternoon snorkelling. After a 40 minute walk, we reached a beach cove, popular for snorkelling. This was our first opportunity to see the sea life, and were immediately captivated by the sea turtles.
The tranquility and silence of being under the water makes you feel like time has slowed. The serenity was only broken by Laura dropping our Go Pro as we watched it float to the sea floor! Luckily, after a lot of muffled flapping from Laura through her snorkel, Nav was able to dive and retrieve it!
We learnt about how the island had a post box at the port and travellers and pirates would send mail by leaving it in the post box and each traveller would check it and take it to be delivered if it was a destination they were heading to. The island are trying to keep this alive, so the post box is filled with postcards from tourists, waiting to be hand delivered by another tourist. There were unfortunately none for the UK for us to deliver, but we decided to write a postcard to each other and leave it there in the hope that a future traveller will deliver it to us. The added anticipation is that we don’t know what each other has written! Hopefully one day we will find out!
We left Floreana to head to the third island we would be staying at – Isabella Island. As we approached the island, it looked exactly like the pictures in the brochures. The edge of the island was scattered with small lava rock formations, the sand was white and we were greeted by a beach full of iguanas and sea lions relaxing in the shade on the benches.
We would be camping again; this time in the foothills of the volcano, which is still active (last eruption in 2005). The family run business provided us with a large field to ourselves with luxury tents, a rustic wooden construction housed a bar and restaurant, and all the food provided was from their own organic farm.
After settling into camp, we headed to the volcano for a walk to its basin (a mere 10km wide!). It was a nice opportunity to chat to others in the group, and in the process get filthy dirty in yellow dust from the path. By the end, we all sported dust moustaches, and were absolutely covered in dust, so headed immediately to the beach to wash ourselves off!
As sunset approached, our tour guide met us at the beach with a ‘treat’. A man turned up on a bicycle with a huge basket at the front filled with coconuts – we were about to experience the local drink of a Coco Loco. The tip of the coconut was cut off and a hole made for a straw. We had to take big gulps of the coconut water and then our guide topped it up with a local alcohol. For most of us, it was too strong and not the Caribbean drink we had imagined. One girl even resorted to digging a hole in the sand and pouring it in there to avoid drinking it! Nav however loved it, and ever the gentleman helped the girls out by drinking three of them. Laura on the other hand found an offer on cocktails at a bar and opted for a couple of orange mojitos for sunset!
Our next day on the island was promised to be the highlight by our guide. Half of our tour group opted to pay an extortionate amount for a boat and snorkelling trip to see a range of sea life, whilst the rest opted to stay at the beach.
As we woke that morning we heard that one of the girls had been sick throughout the night, but was still determined to go on the trip. As we were leaving, another girl was sick and opted to go back to her tent for the day. As we got on our bus, another girl was sick! They were dropping like flies! We put it down to the chicken from the night before and wondered who would be the next victim!
We arrived at the snorkelling centre and all immediately queued for the bathroom to each work out whether we had been hit by the same sickness! Our boat trip now had two casualties. We settled on the boat, and headed out 40 minutes into the sea. On the way, another girl was hit by the sickness! The captain kindly requested they stopped using the toilet on the boat as it was proving difficult to pump it away! So we now had three girls hanging their heads over the side of the boat, feeding the fish so to speak!
We unexpectedly approached a large group of manta rays, some reaching over 8 feet wide. They were beautiful creatures to watch from the boat and our guide said we were lucky to see them as they only come to the surface for feeding or mating. He then proceeded to say we could join them if we wanted to! We thought he was joking, but apparently not! With worried looks across the boat, Nav was the first to jump at the opportunity and was quickly launching himself off the boat to swim with them! He was filled with a mixture of excitement and nerves as he later admitted he was worried that he may actually get eaten by these giant creatures! But this remains one of his biggest highlights of the Galapagos.
After that, we continued on to a location filled with lava which had formed bridges in the sea. Here we took a walk and spotted blue-footed boobies and a baby boobie. They were such fascinating and unique birds.
It was then on to our snorkelling excursion. Our guide led us to different areas and we were lucky enough to see a range of fish, sea turtles and a sea horse. We then found a few spots where sharks were located, lurking underneath rocks. Our guide asked us to come over to him one by one and he proceeded to dunk us under the water, holding us down so we could watch the sharks. As Nav went down, he watched a shark come towards him and played a game of poker as to who would move away first. The shark won, and Nav came to the surface just in case!
Some of the group were competing to get to the front by the guide, frightened to miss out, but we took the opportunity to hang back and take in the beautiful world below sea level. It was actually such a romantic experience.
After snorkelling, we were presented with a lunch of chicken and rice! It tipped the girls over the edge after being so sick! So Nav benefited from a few extra lunches!
We then headed back to the island; as our boat docked the girls were still being ill, and the locals enjoyed a spectacle as two of them hung over the pier edge! It was an early night for all of us to get some rest and hope the now total of 13 ill people would get better!
The next morning most people were feeling better, and a group of us opted to spend the morning at the beach before we left the island. We casually hung out with the sea lions, paddled with penguins and watched the birds fish for their food. We squeezed in more snorkelling in a natural pool, before our time was up. Laura was lucky enough to have an iguana swim on her head whilst snorkelling – she nearly drowned in excitement! And that was a wrap on our Galapagos adventure – it was back to mainland Ecuador for New Years Eve.
