Galapagos: San Cristobal Island (3 nights)

September 2022

Sea lions. Sea lions. Sea lions. They own the city of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the capital of Galapagos Province (one of 24 provinces of Ecuador) where 127 islands, islets, and rocks exist in blissful peace. These guys sleep on benches, like in the photo above, walk around town, yell at one another while totally ignoring people and cars.

Galapagos had not been on our list of places to visit because we thought it was far far away and expensive. When we saw $1,699 per person price offered by Exoticca for a 10 night trip to Ecuador that included Galapagos in a Travelzoo email, we booked it thinking it would be now or never. The Galapagos that was included in this package was San Cristobal, which has one of the two commercial airports in Galapagos. (The other is in Beltra which is connected to Santa Cruz by a short ferry ride.)

Turned out, it was not all that far. The flight from the southern city of Guayaquil to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno Airport on San Cristobal (Saint Christopher) Island covered around 600 miles & we got there in about 90 minutes. Even though it is the capital of the province, Puerto Baquerizo (population: 6,600) is basically a sleepy little town with a backpackers’ vibe.

We spent 3 nights here. After arriving in early afternoon, we got a walking tour of the entire town which took about 90 minutes strolling slowly with constant photo stops. Our guide explained that only 3% of the Galapagos Islands, which is a national park, is occupied by humans and the rest are protected. People have to keep at least 2 meters away from an animal. The obvious effect of this rule was that animals did not pay any attention to us. Puerto Baquerizo (map) has one traffic light and two major streets: one along the coast(Av. Charles Darwin) and one coming from the airport and goes parallel to the coastal road (Av. Alsacio Thothia).

As I was resting after the walk, this question suddenly hit me: why do people come to Galapagos? And what do people do when they come here? I had always been intrigued by Galapagos, but, I never really knew much about it. Since we were joining a packaged tour, I didn’t even bother to do much research on it. According to our tour itinerary, we were to visit a beach the next morning to see the animals endemic to Galagagos and to swim. After lunch, they would take us to a Galapagos giant tortoise breeding center. Then the second full day on the island was to be a free day.

There tends to be someone in any group that takes the initiative and goes into action as required. In this case, it was Bart from the Bay Area who organized a boat trip to Isla Lobos, a little island off the coast. This exact tour was offered as an optional activity for the free day by our tour company for around $200, but, he negotiated with one of the local tour agencies lining the little road a block inland from the coastal road & got a half day boat tour with all the necessary gear, lunch and snacks for $110/person for 8 of us. Unfortunately, this was available only the next morning, thus, we skipped the morning beach outing and did this instead. It was the highlight of our visit to Galapagos!

We went to the agency (Pacifictour S.A.) at 8 AM the next morning and got fitted with a wet suit and snorkeling gear, then we walked to the pier to get on the boat. We learned from our guide that most guides are independent professionals not affiliated with any tour agency. This was true with the boat captain. The agencies find the customers and hook up with a guide and a captain to fill a boat, which may be owned by someone else.

On the way to Isla Lobos, the guide asked each one of us what we expected from this boat trip, and, most people, including me, mentioned seeing animals. As soon as we got off the boat 20 minutes later, we knew we would get what we wanted.

We were walking on a very rocky path, but the frigate birds were nesting, blue-footed boobies were frolicking, sea lion families were lounging around all along the 800 meter trail to make our efforts totally worthwhile. Isla Lobos was literally packed with these animals endemic to Galapagos.

After our walk we returned to the boat and were taken to a snorkeling spot where sea turtles were playing. The water was, of course, crystal clear and some sea lions jumped up on the little motor boat that was attached to the main boat and proceeded to take a nap.

After more snorkeling and swimming at a beach, we went back to town and were led to a restaurant for a pretty decent lunch.

We joined our tour group for the afternoon activities. The only road to get us anywhere from Puerto Baquerizo took us to the giant tortoise breeding center in La Galapaguera. The 40 minute mountain drive was pleasant and it proved there really were not many people living on this island. I didn’t even know tortoises were land animals whereas turtles live in water before going to this research center where babies were born and raised in a protected natural environment.

At the end of the road was Puerto Chino beach which was named as such because a mountain in the background of this beach looked like a China man’s hat according to eyes of some locals.

The next morning, some people from the first boat trip went on an all day around the island boat trip for $180/person. This is one of the popular tours (nickname: 360° Tour) along with the Kicker Rock snorkeling tour and the Isla Lobos tour. I was afraid of getting seasick, thus, we opted out of it & took a taxi to the beach that we had to skip previous morning. The taxis in town were all 4-seat trucks and cost $1 to $10 depending on distance.

My main interest in La Loberia Beach was the Galapagos marine iguanas. The beach itself was an easy walk from the parking lot where the taxi dropped us off. We arranged the pick up time with the driver who was quite chatty and friendly so that we would not have to worry about finding a ride back ($5) to the hotel. There was a park official standing by a big signage of the beach asking us to write down our names and check in time. I guess they wanted to make sure everyone was accounted for at the end of the day. After about 20 minutes on the beach path, the trail started getting rocky. 10 minutes of this, and, Pat decided not to go any further. I kept going because I really wanted to see these guys. After another 10-15 minutes of climbing up the rocky hill on the beach, there it was! The guy in the picture above just presented himself unceremoniously. Holy shit!

Then there’s another one. And more. Some people coming down the hill bragged about seeing 4 of them. I’d already seen 5 -10 by this point. I was probably just lucky. I could have kept on going to see some birds and other animals, but, I had enough of them at Isla Lobos. When I came back to where Pat was waiting, he was busy assisting new arrivals to the area by pulling them up the rocky trail. Right there and then, a big iguana appeared rewarding Pat for his good deeds.

We asked the cab driver to drop us off at the entrance to Playa Mann where 3 almost identical restaurants stood together offering $5 lunch that included an appetizer, a main, a dessert and a drink. Delicious!

We heard from the people who went to the beach the day before that the water was too cold to swim in without a wet suit. I guess September was not a warm month in Galapagos. The group who went on the 360° boat trip reported back that it was fantastic, but, the last 2 hours returning home was hard for those prone to motion sickness. I was glad I did not go with them.

Looking at the waning sun while thinking about all the birds and sea creatures we’d seen sipping a cocktail on the balcony of our hotel, life seemed good. I could see why people come here. Was Galapagos a great place to visit? Definitely. Was 3 nights too short? I could have enjoyed a couple more days of peace and quiet on that island where people and animals seemed to really live together. Would I want to go back to Galapagos? Well, I am happy I have been there, but, I have this feeling that they better not have too many tourists. I’d hate to see this town overtaken by high rise hotels. I was there in September which fell in the off season, and, it was not crowded at all. But it does get busy from November to May, I have heard. I can’t help thinking my repeat visit may not help the eco system.

Did I feel I was missing out by just staying in one island? It is true that I was curious about other islands, and, if I had planned a trip on my own, I might have gone to Santa Cruz and Isabela. But, I do feel I have seen enough to appreciate what Galapagos had to offer.

I didn’t feel things were really expensive in Galapagos. For instance, the two hour ferry ride to Santa Cruz cost $38. The package price of $1,699 (included Quito & Guayaquil) was a real bargain, but, I thought I could match that price by doing it on my own. That means the tour company did not make a whole lot of money, though. The flights from LAX to Quito and back seemed to be about $800 at the time. Domestic flights to and from San Cristobal to Guayaquil was about $300-400. Ecuador uses U.S. Dollar as their currency, thus, it is convenient for the travelers from the U.S.

Where we stayed: Galapagos Planet was the hotel, and, it was a 5 minute drive from the airport. Even though it was not in the center of town, we could walk to most restaurants and shops and attractions in 5-10 minutes. Nothing fancy but comfortable with hot shower and air-conditioning. The majority of the lodgings in town seemed to be hostels catering to backpackers. I noticed some decent Airbnb rooms available for $40-60/night. There were upscale places near the coast, but, we were fine where we were. Wash & Fold service was readily available in town on side streets & they charged like $1.50 for a Kg of laundry.

Where we ate: breakfasts were free at the hotel & quite decent. One lunch came with the Isla Lobos boat trip, and, another one was a $5 lunch at Playa Mann. First dinner was at an Italian restaurant recommended by our tour guide, Giuseppe’s. Great food around $15-30/person. The second dinner was at a courtyard bar and restaurant called Maui, shown in the photos above. We had a satisfying dinner and two cocktails for under $40. The last dinner was the munchies at the farewell party at the hotel.

Before catching our flight back to Guayaquil, we took a walk along the coast, and guess what we saw: marine iguanas. I did not have to go through all that trouble to see them after all! Or, maybe, they came to see us off.

Itinerary: Quito – Tena & Amazon Rain forest – San Cristobal (Galapagos) – Guayaquil