Week 25: Laptops and Lava Tunnels, Week 1 in the Galápagos Islands
Welcome to another week and for the next two weeks we are going to be in the Galápagos Islands!!
Monday morning and I’m up early in Santa Cruz to embark on a day trip to Santa Fe for snorkelling (my first time 😂) to see iguanas and sea lions.
The only catch was that when I showed up, the tour guide had booked me onto a local school trip. Me and sixteen children. Understandably it was quite the infuriating day.
But, I did see lots of wildlife and got to briefly swim with sea lions which was very cool!
Tuesday is travel day and I’m all packed ready to go to Isabela Island, the largest and most sparsely populated island in the Galapagos. I started the day by heading to a little bistro to kill time after check-out until my boat.
I think when people think about nomads they think we work outside on patios or alongside pools all day but the reality is that it’s a ballache. The noise, the screen glare, the uncomfortable seating. That said, it was a nice change to be working outdoors for a few hours but I certainly couldn’t do it every day.
I headed to my boat at the harbour, and then managed to decipher I needed to trade my ticket for a lanyard before boarding. The Galapagos are beautiful but they just don’t understand how to do tourism, it’s like a never ending episode of Fawlty Towers.
We took a dinghy to the ferry and then started the journey to Isabela, a bit rough but all done and dusted in 2.5 hours.
Once I arrived at Isabella I was really surprised at the contrast. Whilst Santa Cruz was a millionaire’s playground with jewellery stores, tree-lined streets and posh restaurants, Isabella was a laid-back haven of simplicity, where sandy streets replaced pavements, beach bars took the place of bistros and iguanas outnumbered tourists. It felt more like a forgotten island paradise than part of the same archipelago.
I checked into my hotel, which was only $40 a night for a king-size room, and imagine my delight to finally have air conditioning after my previous shoddy airbnb which played host to the cast of Bug’s Life.
Mid-week and I’m off on another tour today. Los Túneles (or Cabo Rosa) is the most famous tour in the Galapagos. We headed off early morning by boat to Cabo Rosa which took just under an hour.
When you get there it looks like nothing, just a shallow rocky area, but the magic is underwater. A long time ago this area was formed by volcanic eruptions, and when lava met the cool ocean water, it created a network of tunnels and arches both above and below the surface. That’s what makes Los Túneles so unique — it’s like nature carved out its own secret playground for marine life.
Once we put on our snorkelling gear and slipped into the clear turquoise water, everything changed. We swam through lava arches and narrow passages, and I spotted a sea turtle ahead but I couldn’t catch him this time.
The surreal mix of volcanic landscape and thriving marine life made this one of the most unforgettable experiences I’ve had on the islands. It’s strange to think that what looks so unassuming from the surface is actually a hidden world of wonder just beneath the waves.
After the initial thirty minute dive we then boarded the boat again to the next snorkelling area. I jumped in and was instantly surrounded by schools of colourful fish darting through the water like confetti. A small shark drifted into view in the distance: sleek, calm, and completely uninterested in us. I thought about following him, just to see where he was heading, but I didn’t have the balls 😂. So I let him glide away into the blue and carried on, weaving through the arches and tunnels.
After nearly an hour of swimming through this volcanic maze, I was just about ready to call it a day when — out of nowhere — a massive sea turtle appeared beside me, cruising past like I didn’t even exist. I was completely stunned. I followed him GoPro in hand, trying to keep up without disturbing him, and just as I thought it couldn’t get better, a second one glided past in the other direction.
An absolutely amazing day that I’ll treasure forever.
Thursday and not much on today, I’m showcasing a project to a client this morning, all went well I think! Quick Spanish lesson and then I’m having a lazy day, walking around the town and going to have a movie day this afternoon, it’s been a bit hectic this past week.
Feeling refreshed for Friday and I’m starting the morning off with a Spanish lesson and I’m heading out to see more of the island. Only a portion of it, because it’s massive, twice the size of Luxembourg massive. I walked for about an hour to a lagoon to see some flamingos… there was only one there, typical 😂 but then I was greeted by a Galapagos Flycatcher. A tiny little bird that was the friendliest little guy, he kept staring at me with his beak open, like he was smiling or laughing and kept hovering around my head. Am I… a Disney princess… now? It was a very unique experience.
On my sweltering one-hour walk back to the village I laughed to myself… like…. Places like this exist and people choose to go to Dubai. All to take a photo of themselves in an overpriced restaurant to post on Instagram to gloat to their followers… who… newsflash, don’t give a flying fuck where you are.
The Galápagos Islands really aren’t that expensive either, ignoring getting here (as I was already in Ecuador) these two weeks will cost me about £2000 and that includes all my accommodation and eating out 3 meals a day plus about £700 spent on optional tours. And a nice steak dinner will be about £10, versus £100+ in Dubai.
As if being in Dubai warrants bragging rights… what are you bragging… that you’ve overpaid for something? Well done, parallel universe Martin Lewis, you’ve just spent $40 on a cocktail and a sparkler. Twat.
Anyway, moving on…
Another tour this afternoon, I didn’t see any penguins on the Los Túneles tour and ChatGPT told me the most likely place to see them was on the Tintoreras tour which was only $50 and within five minutes I was less than two metres away from a penguin… I ended up seeing about ten on the tour, another item off my bucket list! We went for a walk on these volcanic islands and I saw sharks, manta rays, blue-footed boobies, frigates, sea lions and plenty of iguanas. Afterwards we snorkelled for a bit and I swam alongside a turtle again, I still can’t believe how big they are up close. I couldn’t believe how much wildlife we saw on such a cheap tour, dead chuffed.
After my tour I went for a run along the beach and watched the sun go down, Isabela has really grown on me after a few days, it’s a tropical paradise.
I’m so happy my running fitness is returning, the flexibility in my ankle is still pretty crap but it’s so much better even compared to a month ago, I’m so close to being fully healed.
It’s the weekend and I’m headed to my third and final island, San Cristobal, the last of the habited Galápagos Islands. To travel by boat it’s two 2.5-hour boats with a five hour gap in the middle at a cost of $70 or you can take a 45-minute flight for $150, so I took the flight and what a cool experience it was.
Upon arrival at the airport, they weigh your bags to make sure they’re under 15 kilos and then you head to the “gate”.
As we boarded (two other passengers and me), I climbed up onto the wing of the plane and into the co-pilot seat for the best view.
Within minutes we were airborne and began our flight to San Cristobal, just over thirty minutes later we began our descent and landed at SCY airport. I grabbed my bags and walked to my apartment, just a twenty-minute walk from the airport.
I’m staying at a place called Pimampiro, it has a hotel and a guesthouse. My apartment is $45 a night for an en-suite with a pool and fully fitted kitchen outside. Bargain.
I never stay in hotels anymore, I just think they’re such a waste of money. For comparison, the hotel rooms in the same complex start at $95 a night and for that extra $50, I get a free bowl of corn flakes each morning… mad really isn’t it?
Later on in the day I took a walk into the town to check it out, it’s a lot more cosmopolitan here but less “millionaire-y” than Santa Cruz. I think I’ll like it.
Happy Sunday! My final day of the week and I’m spending my final few days just lazing around. I’ve seen everything I wanted to see in the Galapagos and now I’m going to relax:
✅ Penguins
✅ Turtles
✅ Tortoises
✅ Blue-footed boobies
✅ Iguanas
✅ Frigates
✅ Sea lions
I went for a long walk this morning and after about half an hour I had to turn back, it’s so hot and humid, just the slightest movement results in sweating buckets.
Found a nice café to chill for a bit and caught up on my current favourite YouTube series: AussieEspanol is about a dude from Australia who is traversing the entire Americas (Argentina to Alaska) in a tuk tuk with a dog… definitely worth checking out.
Later on in the afternoon I had a project review with my other client and showcased his website to him, all very good feedback – almost at the end of this project now, happy days!
For the rest of the day, I chilled by the pool just smashing out lots of blogs and editing my photography.
Back to Mexico next week guys, woohoo! See you then 👋
