Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands

Rotem Haskia
Apr 21, 2020
8 min read

Updated: Apr 22, 2020

Expect of being a bit pricey trip for most South America's backpackers, what do we really know about the Galapagos islands and the many opportunities they hold within them? In this blog I'm going to share with you my full trip plan, my information, tips and all you need to know about this not a little piece of heaven but a big one.

Montañita

Montañita is a small coastal town in Ecuador and is famous for being a beautiful quiet town by the beach with many nightlife options to offer you.

Where to sleep?

I Love Montañita apartments: an apartment that does not fall from a really good hotel room. On one side we had the beach and on the other side we had all the restaurants and local market. The room was super big with great AC which is important here.

What to do?

The market: all around this 3 streets town you will find many markets and countless of shops with unique ocean vibe jewelry, clothes and more.
Surfing class: take a surfing class in this wavy paradise.
Beach: spend the day on the pastoral beach with a 2$ fruit cup or milkshake. Tip: I highly recommend to not miss the colorful sunset on the beach.

Guayaquil

The second largest city in Ecuador and also the Ecuador's main port, Guayaquil is mostly a stop before flying to the Galapagos but there are some nice things to see here.

Where to sleep?

Casa Michael: a very nice hostel to spend the night before flying to the Galapagos.

What to do?

Parque Seminario: or in its other name the Iguanas Park which is a beautiful green park that is the home of many huge Iguanas. You can bring with you lettuce and feed the Iguanas or some seeds to play with the many pigeons in the park. In front of the park you will find the beautiful Guayaquil cathedral.

Malecón 2000: a pier overlooking the huge Guayas River, here you can find restaurants, amusement parks and the amazing monument Hemicycle De la Rotunda.

Las Peñas Neighborhood: At the end of Malecón 2000 you will find the colorful Las Peñas Neighborhood which is the first neighborhood of Guayaquil and the last Colonial one.

Santa Ana neighborhood: if you will put in the small effort and climb the 500 stairs to the top of the hill you will find a light house, a church and behind them the breathtaking view of the colorful Colonial Guayaquil. Beside the view that is completely worth it the walk will take you between many local restaurants, bars, small shops and pastoral alleys that will make you feel like you're in Italy.

Galapagos Islands

Before anything, how should you book your trip to the Galapagos? Yes at most cases I'll be the first one to admit that booking only a flight and doing your all trip on your own will be cheaper and you'll save some money but in that case I'll have to recommend Reality Dreams Galapagos which after a lot of research proved itself exactly on the same price as doing your own trip and sometimes even cheaper since they can help you save money on a lot of things with professional guidance. Before starting my trip, Reality Dreams opened for a me a WhatsApp group with my entire trip team where they kept me posted, inform me and just were here for me for whatever I needed.

Baltara island

After a quick 2 hours flight from Guayaquil you will land here in the airport of the island. Baltara is a small island with salt bushes and cactuses and is mainly a connection point from which you will continue to another island. After a 20$ tax in Guayaquil I also paid the mandatory 100$ tax and took a 5$ bus to the Itabaca Channel where I took another 1$ ferry across to Santa Cruz island.

Puerto Ayora

Puerto Ayora is a town on the southern shore of Santa Cruz Island and the most populous town in the Galápagos Islands. In Puerto Ayora you will find most of the Galapagos tourism from scuba dives with sharks to meeting wild huge Galapagos turtles.

Where to sleep?

Gardner hostel.
Gloria hostel.

What to do?

Los Gemelos: A lovely 30 minutes nature walk in a peaceful green area with the view of two impressive craters.

Tuneles De Lava and Reserva El Chato: a must visit spots which I written together since they are in the same place. In this place you will walk inside caves that were carved by lava in a volcanic eruption and after that see countless of the Galapagos giant turtles in the wild! Truly a complete Galapagos island experience that gives you a great first taste of the islands to start your trip.

Las Grietas: A peaceful and beautiful point where you can enjoy a natural pool in a crack between massive rocks and also snorkel. From the taxi drop off point you will walk 15 minutes in a beautiful trail with a lot of the Galapagos island's iconic views such as Iguanas nesting fields, a white and blue beach which I recommend resting at after Las Grietas and many cactuses and birds.

Tip: just before Las Grietas you can turn left for a 5 minutes trail that will lead you between interesting cactuses to a breathtaking viewpoint over the whole Santa Cruz island.

Tortuga Bay: I changed into my swimsuit, grabbed snorkel equipment from Albatros shop and walked in the 40 minutes pastoral trail to the one of a kind Tortuga Bay. This beach is considered one of the best ones around the world and is a paradise for surfing and snorkeling in crystal blue water with many of the islands Marine Iguanas.

The local fish market: this market is an attraction for itself, here you can come to see the birds and sea lions trying to get some fishes and the many Iguanas tanning in the sun.

The Charles Darwin Research Center: where you can learn all about the island's history, go to the center's beach for countless iguanas, see the center's animals and more.
De Las Nifas: A lovely trail around the amazing lake where you can see the many types of Mangrove trees and learn all about it. In the water you can spot many fishes and I even saw sea turtles.

Scuba diving: every scuba diver dreams on the moment he will dive in the Galapagos, the marine life is never ending from stingrays to sharks. Here are the best tours you cannot miss:

Seymor and Mosquera: Today was a very exciting day in my Galapagos adventure since it was my first scuba dive. This Scuba dive day can cost around 150$ and includes the equipment, lunch, guide and 2 dives one in Seymor and one in Mosquera which in between them you can also snorkel. The day started on 07:00 am at Albatros shop where they drove us to the marine where we sailed to Seymor for about 20 minutes. Seymor and Mosquera are a great diving spots with lots of different animals, usually calm water and very good visibility. We saw schools of hammerhead sharks, the white and the black tip reef sharks, different types of rays, a sea turtle, moraine and more.

Gordon's rock: Another scuba dive day that started at 07:00 o'clock in Albatros shop where again and drove to the marine for around 30 minutes sail to Gordon's rock. This location is known for being a "sharky" one and we were very excited about the dive. Take to your consideration that the visibility here is known to be a little bit low and there are currents. In Gordon's rock we saw about the same animals as in Seymor, the same types of sharks and families of beautiful rays.

Snorkel at Pinzon Island: You would think that after scuba diving at Gordon's rock and Seymour a simple snorkeling will be boring- think again! In Pinzon you have countless of options for sea life sights such as penguins, sea lions, sharks, turtles and more. The tour started at 08:00 am and after a drive to the marine and a 1.5 hours sail on a boat we arrived to Pinzon island. The tour divided to two snorkeling sessions- one outside of the bay and after a break another one in the bay. We chose to skip the break and to just have one long snorkeling. During our snorkeling we saw amazing fishes such as the blowup fish, the colorful parrot fish and many types of star fishes. We also saw a giant stingray and I finally saw the famous, big Galapagos shark! If all of this wasn't enough, we found a cave filled with countless of white tip reef sharks that swam very close and around us. The highlight of this whole day and maybe my whole Galapagos trip was the surprise that waited for us in the shallow blue water of the bay- a family of many sea lions and also 5 days old baby ones! Those sea lions were completely friendly, they played, even touched us and allowed us to swim with them for 20 minutes before we had to leave.

Isabela island

The largest island which was formed by the joining of five young volcanoes. Tip: if you know that you might get seasick on the boat take a pill because this sail is rough.

When you get of the boat in Isabela you will find to your left a lovely small beach that is usually filed with cute seals that really don't mind sharing the bench with you.

Where to sleep?

Tintoreras hotel: the best hotel I had in the Galapagos, very clean, the room was huge, the breakfast was good and they have many hammocks to hand around in.

What to do?

Laguna Concha Perla: To the right from the marine you arrived in you will find this top location for snorkeling with wildlife such as seals, penguins, iguanas, rays, sea horses and more because the rock formation of the area kind of "traps" the animals inside it.
Los Tunnels tour: In the tour you will walk between cactuses on the very interesting island's lava caves formation and see many of the animals that are unique from this island like the Galapagos penguin and the blue boobies.

After about 20 minutes we returned to the boat which took us to the area where you are allowed to snorkel. During the snorkeling in Los Toneles you will have the chance if you're lucky to watch huge sea turtles, sea horses, white tip reef sharks, rays and more, absolutely a wonderful place to snorkel at.

The national turtles breeding center and lagoons walk: early in the morning I went to a walk on the way to the national turtles breeding center. The walk goes through beautiful lagoons such as Laguna Salinas, Poza Puerta Del Jeli, Poza Baltazar and more and on the way you can see many flamingos, iguanas and other wildlife.

In the breeding center not only I saw more giant turtles but also saw baby ones which was very special and cute.

Posada De Flamengos: Just 300 meters from the center you can find another lake at Posada De Flamengos that is famous for flamingos watching as well.
Wall of Tears: An historical site that was created by prisoners who were forced to build this wall from 1945-1959. A lot of them died during its construction, and the site is supposedly haunted by their ghosts. Tip: the walk to the wall is a bit long and much more fun with a rented bicycle from town. You can also rent the bicycle for half a day and take it to the turtle breeding center, to the flamingo lake and also the wall.

Although I will need to come back to Ecuador for Baños, Quito and more, this trip to Ecuador was mainly for the Galapagos and it was truly a dream come true. With pastoral views, wildlife that cannot be find anywhere else in the world and the most interesting marine life I have ever seen, those islands captured my heart for good. I will have to thank Melany, Juan of course Itay and all the team from Galapagos Reality Dreams that truly proved that dreams can come true and I will recommend everyone to put their trust in them for a perfect trip, I'm literally tearing about leaving this place. For contacting Reality Dreams Facebook click here. For more pictures click here or search @Travel_Rotem on Instagram.