Galapagos!

Ken and I took our first international trip since Covid and we went all the way to the Galapagos Islands! This amazing destination has been on our list for a long time and we quickly put a trip together when we saw that it was an affordable and unique time to visit. When I say affordable this was still an expensive trip living aboard a ship for seven days but compared to what it normally costs it was about 40% off as an incentive to get people back to the Galapagos. We booked this trip through Quasar Expeditions and our travel agent Diane was wonderful, super clear in her instructions and timing on everything we need to do to get ready for the trip.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Galapagos they are a group of 13 islands 600 miles off the coast of Ecuador. These islands are very isolated and have many unique species of animals. Charles Darwin spent months on the Galapagos Islands and the observations he made there were the basis for his theory of evolution.

We flew from Phoenix to Houston and then Houston to Quito, Ecuador where we stayed for a few days before flying to the coast of Ecuador to get on our boat, The Evolution. It was a bit stressful to travel with Covid only because we had to have two different tests to get into Ecuador one for Ecuador and one for the Galapagos specifically. The timing of the tests also had to be within a certain timeframe. I was a little anxious but for us it was no big deal they literally glanced at our test results in Quito and we were in and out of that airport in about 30 minutes. We had a similar experience coming back into the United States they barely looked at our Covid test when we presented it at immigration.

Once we finally got on our boat our wonderful weeklong adventure began. The boat was really lovely with many comfortable common spaces to hang out in as well as a full bar and full-time bartender! We had a king size bed in our room and a very nice sized bathroom for a ship. The crew on the boat were great, very friendly and helpful and the naturalists that took us out every day were very knowledgeable. There were 28 guests on the boat and we enjoyed getting to know everyone. We went out every day and did several activities a day generally a hike, then snorkeling, and then kayaking or swimming or another hike. It is definitely a vigorous trip but you want to do everything because it's so beautiful and unique.

The Galapagos Islands are quite different from each other. One is a completely volcanic island another is a rainforest another is like a desert terrain. Each island has a unique ecosystem and animal life. Because the islands are so protected and Ecuador limits the amount of people who can visit, the birds and animals and even the sea lions are very comfortable with people. It was so much fun to be able to walk up to birds, lizards and tortoises and just observe them from a few feet away. One of the highlights of the trip for me was snorkeling with about 15 sea lions and having them just swim around us in a very playful way. They would imitate what we were doing.

Our trip to the Galapagos was one of the most unique trips we've ever taken and we're ready to go back. Here is a taste of some of the animals we encountered on the islands.