After our Galapagos cruise was over, our adventures in the islands were not. We had planned almost a week of Galapagos island hopping to see some places not covered on the cruise. This would also give us a bit of an idea about what life is like in the Galapagos islands.

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Galapagos Island Hopping – Isabela

After leaving our cruise, we went through the complicated process of taking a bus to the canal, a ferry across the canal, then a taxi to Puerto Ayora. We were getting pretty familiar with the scenery between the airport and town.

A tour agent let us store our luggage in his office, after some initial confusion where he thought I wanted to buy luggage. With a few hours to kill before our boat to Isabela Island, we went back to the Galápagos Deli (a place we had found on our earlier brief stay in Puerto Ayora) for fruit shakes. We hung out using Wi-Fi for a while, then split a serving of fish and chips for lunch. We decided not to eat too much before our inter-island boat ride because we had heard that they could be rough.

Eventually it was time to head to the dock. After much waiting, lining up, quarantine “inspection” (really just a question about whether there was any fruit etc. in our bags) and a water taxi ride, we got on the Neptuno III inter-Island ferry. This is actually just a large speedboat, “ferry” is a bit of an overstatement.

It took a while to leave as the passenger count was off. Eventually the deckhand discovered that someone had got off the water taxi into our boat who wasn’t supposed to. After she left in a water taxi to the correct ferry, we set off. The trip to Isabela island wasn’t too rough, fortunately. We arrived late afternoon, and after another water taxi ride and paying USD 10 each in port tax we were on Isabela Island in the small beach town of Puerto Villamil.

Settling in to Isabela Island

As we walked off the dock we saw the last taxi take off with some passengers. As it was less than 1 km to our hotel, we decided to walk. Maybe it was just me who decided – I’m not sure Heide or Lachlan were ever really on board with this plan. It was actually a bit far to walk with our luggage in the heat on uneven sidewalks and roads. In hindsight, we should have waited a few minutes for a taxi.

Eventually we made it, and checked into our room at Hotel Neptuno. Again, we had booked this place because it was the cheapest triple room I could find. The staff wasn’t as friendly as our hotel in Puerto Ayora, and there wasn’t a really comfortable common area to hang out in when we wanted to get out of the room, so I wouldn’t recommend this one as whole-heartedly. However, it was clean and in a good location, so it was fine for our needs.

After unpacking, we headed out to explore the nearby beach area of town. After checking out quite a few options, we found that the touristy restaurant strip was actually our best bet for dinner, as long as we stuck to the special deals. We chose a USD 8 deal including soup, main course and a small dessert, which was actually pretty good.

After dinner we walked out to a bar at the end of the pier. Heide and I had underwhelming cocktails, but Lachlan really enjoyed his passionfruit shake. By this stage we were very tired, so we made our way back to the room for an early night.

Exploring Puerto Villamil

The next morning we dropped off seventeen pounds of post-cruise laundry, then went in search of breakfast. We found a great place with a good USD 5 breakfast deal, including a local specialty – fried plantain ball with cheese inside.

After breakfast we explored the areas of town inland from the beach. Lots of the buildings have architectural features and murals that celebrate the Galapagos Islands wildlife.

We came across a church with a very strong island theme.

We eventually made it to the beach again, this time on the edge of town. Past a well-used iguana crossing, we came to a rocky area covered in marine iguanas.

At this point we remembered that this was supposed to be something of a rest day, so we headed back to the room for a siesta.

Snorkeling at Concha de Perla

After some rest time, hunger overcame our tiredness. We headed out for a light lunch of empanadas at a beachside bar. When our hunger was dealt with, we picked up our laundry and rented some snorkel gear in preparation for our planned afternoon activity.

After dropping the laundry back in the room and changing into our swimming gear, we headed to Concha de Perla. Located near the dock we had arrived at, this is a fantastic snorkeling spot. After navigating a wooden walkway and stepping over a number of sleeping sea lions, we arrived at a platform with steps leading into the water. While snorkeling we saw an eagle ray, sea lions playing, big puffer fish, coral and interesting volcanic rock formations.

This is a good example of the great activities you can do on a Galapagos island hopping trip. This snorkel spot was as good as many of the places we snorkeled on our Galapagos cruise.

We hit the restaurant strip again for dinner, choosing a USD 7 dinner deal this time, mainly so Lachlan could have teriyaki squid. After dinner we headed back to the hotel for another early night. We were all pretty tired after so much activity on what was supposed to be our rest day to recover from our action-packed cruise.

Los Tuneles Day Trip

The next day we did one of the most popular activities on Isabela Island, a day trip to Los Tuneles. Just before 11 we met our tour leader and six other tour participants and all piled into a pickup taxi to go to the pier to meet our boat.

On the way out to Los Tuneles we stopped at a rock outcrop covered in birds (mostly Nazca boobies) then were lucky enough to see large manta rays very close to the boat. At times they flipped upside down so we could see their white bellies.

Our first stop once we reached Los Tuneles was snorkeling through mangrove shallows. We saw baby eagle rays, baby Galapagos sharks, larger white-tip reef sharks resting in a cave, lots of turtles and a seahorse.

Next we traveled to the rock formations that gave Los Tuneles its name. We had a bit of excitement as the boat had to navigate some waves to get in there. After a short snorkel to see a penguin posing serenely on a rock, we ate lunch on board the boat. Lunch was chicken and mushroom with vegetables over rice, which exceeded our expectations. We were expecting sandwiches.

After lunch, the boat navigated through lava tunnel formations. The captain displayed great skill getting us through some very tight spaces.

The boat was tied up nestled into the rock, and we took a short walk on the lava formations. We saw blue footed boobies doing their dance (two males competing for interest of a female), but the amazing landscape is the star attraction here. This trip was a highlight of our Galapagos island hopping adventures.

Tortoise Breeding Center

Renting bicycles and riding out to the Wall of Tears is another very popular activity for people visiting Isabela Island on a Galapagos island hopping tour. However, after seeing the sandy road conditions and experiencing the hot and humid weather conditions we decided against this option. Instead, we decided to take the walk through the mangrove wetlands to the Arnaldo Tupiza Tortoise Breeding Center.

Along the way we saw lots of flamingoes, closer up than we had seen on Floreana Island. The water was an unfortunate yellow-brown color (unfortunate for photographs, at least, I’m sure it indicates lots of yummy nutrients for the flamingoes).

After crossing the wetlands, the trail passed through some cool (literally – they provided shade from the hot sun) tunnels of vegetation.

Eventually we made it to the center, stopping for an ice cream before we visited the tortoises.

This tortoise center provided better opportunities to see medium-sized and fully grown tortoises than the one we had visited on San Cristobal. However, we didn’t get to see the tiny baby tortoises here.

This center also had a display explaining why tortoise centers are necessary. Due to introduced species (e.g. ants, rats, dogs, cattle) baby tortoises can’t survive in the wild. Tortoise centers hatch them and raise them until they are big enough to survive on their own. Tortoise centers also rescue individual species that get too small to be viable in the wild and build up the population to avoid extinction.

Leaving Isabela Island

After our visit to the tortoise breeding center we retreated to our air-conditioned hotel room to recover from our morning spent walking in the tropical heat. After lunch, we spent some time packing in preparation for the next stop in our Galapagos island hopping adventure, a couple of days back on Santa Cruz Island.

When all our luggage was in good order, we headed out for a walk to see the sunset.

For dinner, we went for another dinner special on the restaurant strip. Lachlan went for the imaginatively named (and presented) “seafood volcano”.

The next morning, we made our way downstairs with all our luggage at 8:30am as we had been told we had to be out of the room by 9am. However, we couldn’t find any hotel staff. We waited until just after 9am, then stashed our bags behind the counter and left the room key on the safe.

We went to breakfast at our favorite nearby cafe, then checked back at hotel. Still no hotel staff, so we just grabbed our luggage and headed to the beach next to the ferry dock to wait for our afternoon ferry. There were some benches under some nice shade trees, but they had all been claimed by sea lions.

Eventually one of the sea lions moved and Heide was able to grab a seat. Lachlan and I had one last swim with penguins and sea lions on yet another amazing Galapagos beach.

After some (not great) empanadas for lunch, it was time to head to the dock.

Galapagos Island Hopping – Santa Cruz

Boarding the boat on Isabela Island to return to Santa Cruz was a bit less chaotic than our experience boarding in Santa Cruz. There was some confusion however, as we were switched to a different boat to the one we were specified on our tickets. The boat we ended up traveling on was more enclosed than the the boat we traveled on to Isabela. It was more like an actual ferry, but not really any bigger. This was both good and bad. It was good because this boat design kept us dry in the rougher water that we experienced on the return trip. The bad part was that it got very stuffy in the enclosed space. The trip was very rough, like two hours in a car wash. Amazingly, no one got seasick.

When we eventually made it back to Puerto Ayora, we took a short USD 2 taxi ride back to the Hostal El Paraiso. The driver asked when we were going to the airport, and after we overcame some language issues he agreed to pick us up at 6:30am on Monday to go to the airport for USD 20. This was a bit cheaper than the regular USD 25.

We had dinner back on the restaurant street near our hotel. Heide and I shared a scorpion fish (half with coconut sauce, half with garlic sauce), as it’s a local specialty. It was pretty good, with a taste like grouper, but with a consistency that was a bit like halibut. Lachlan had pizza.

Charles Darwin Research Station

Although we had already been to two tortoise breeding centers, we decided that we couldn’t miss the Charles Darwin Research Station. This was the focus of our last full day in the Galapagos Islands. After breakfast at our favorite spot, the Galapagos Deli, we set off on the walk to the station.

Along the way we checked out a small alleyway between houses that is decorated with mosaics and ceramic art.

Continuing on, we made it to the Charles Darwin Research Station. Here we saw different tortoise species from all over the Galapagos Islands.

There was a lot more to see here than just the tortoises and the breeding program. The most famous attraction is Lonesome George. George lived many years at the Charles Darwin Research Station as the last of his species of Pinta Island tortoise. No female was ever found to breed with him, so his species became extinct when he died in 2012. He is now on display in a preserved state as a reminder of the efforts needed to preserve biodiversity.

We ended our visit with some time at the visitors’ center. Here we saw displays that covered the wide range of flora and fauna in the Galapagos Islands, and the work that is being done to understand and protect it.

Leaving the Galapagos Islands

After we had seen everything at the Charles Darwin Research Station, we were ready for some lunch. It proved more difficult than we expected to find somewhere that was open for lunch. We ended up at The Rock, which is modeled after a bar on the World War 2 US Army base on Baltra Island, where the airport is.

After lunch, we went to souvenir shops looking for a sea lion stuffed toy for Lachlan. We couldn’t find the specific one he liked that he had seen on Isabela, so after a while we gave up and went back to the room to rest and pack.

The next morning our taxi driver showed up right at 6:30 and we headed to the airport. We were at the check in counter pretty early, but this allowed us to beat the crowds leaving the cruise ships and get through security to do some last minute souvenir browsing and grab some breakfast at the airport lounge. Fortunately, we found Lachlan’s perfect sea lion at a souvenir stand in the departure area, so our Galapagos island hopping adventure finished on an upbeat note.

We were glad we had spent the extra time in the islands after our cruise, but we were also glad that we had done the cruise and not just done a land-based trip. We met a family who were just doing an island hopping trip, and they told us how they were getting a bit weary of the long rides on small boats required for most of the day trips from the towns they were staying in on each island. Luckily, we were able to experience the best of both worlds, starting off our round the world adventure with an amazing couple of weeks in the Galapagos Islands.