Visiting Galapagos Islands with children
Two years ago I went to Galapagos Islands with my family: 5 days in a cruise ship and 2 days in Puerto Ayora, in a hotel facing the sea.
This post is to describe one of the most beautiful vacation in my life, in one of the best location in the world. Moreover, it is aimed at giving evidence that it is possible to visit the Galapagos with young children. In fact, there were seven of us: my wife and I, three children aged between 4 and 8 years, in addition to my parents who are seventy years old.
Cruise or Island Hopping?
Planning a trip to Galapagos Island, the first is always the following: is it better to visit the islands taking a cruise, or it is better to stay overnight in the islands and travel by boat during the day (so called Island Hopping)?
We preferred to visit the Galapagos with a large ship since the management of the trip seemed to be easier, given that there were seven of us. Island hopping would have involved a greater physical and mental effort e.g. in the transfer of suitcases from one hotel / island to another.
Furthermore, Islands Hopping is not very suitable for children. In fact, sleeping in a hotel involves the need to reach the islands of greater naturalistic value with a transfer that can last several hours. Therefore, much of the day is spent on sea on generally small and uncomfortable boats. It is certainly cheaper than cruising, but you risk getting tired and seeing less.
M/V Galapagos Legend
Cruises can be made on large ship or small yachts. We have chosen a very large boat, a real ship: the Galapagos Legend for over 100 passengers. The reasons that led me to choose a large ship are the following:
(i) a large-sized ship creates less nausea for passengers;
(ii) my children were able to run and play freely on the long corridors of the ship. The Galapagos Legend even had a playroom for children, a library, a small gym with an exercise bike and a rowing machine. Finally, there was a small swimming pool (never tested) and a hot tub (tested);
(iii) it was our intention to find a cruise that made the north west route. And this route is possible only with large ships, as these islands are the most distant from the inhabitated islands.
Mosquera Island
The first island we visited is called Mosquera, with a white colored sand.
My children will remember this excursion for a long time, because it was the first occasion of their life to meet the sea lions, who run free on the beach. As for me, the most vivid memory of this excursion is the collective enthusiasm of tourists, all thrilled by the possibility of being able to walk in complete tranquility among so many and exotic wild animals.
Puerto Egas
The second excursion was made to Puerto Egas (on the island of Santiago), a completely black volcanic beach. Early in the morning, with the clouds still low and the sun that could not peep into a sky full of humidity, it seemed to me that I was inside an adventure film.
The beach was sandy, rather fine, and completely black.
In addition to marine iguanas, we found sea lions, crabs, lizards, and birds of various species.
Rabida
We then made an excursion to the island of Rabida. The beach and rocks were completely red; of such a bright red comparable to that of tennis courts.
We also snorkeled. For my daughter Giulia it was the first experience ever with mask, fins and snorkel. Despite the insecurities deriving from inexperience, Giulia was fascinated by the fish that she was able to admire in their natural environment. I, on the other hand, had a lot of fun following the sea turtles and the penguins.
Urbina Bay on Isabella Island
This beach was gray. However, it was a strange gray, given that the sand was composed of a mix of black sand grains (of volcanic origin) mixed with grains of white sand (coral).
The excursion to Urbina Bay is to to be remembered for the numerous land iguanas we encountered during our hiking. These, in particular, stood in the middle of the path to sunbathe: for us tourists it was the perfect opportunity to take photographs with these prehistoric animals.
Espinosa Point (Fernandina Island)
Espinosa Point was perhaps the most spectacular point of the entire cruise. It is a tongue of lava that overlooks the Bolivar canal and is described (and we can confirm) as the point that presents the greatest diversity of endemic fauna of all the Galapagos. There were thousands of marine iguanas, sea lions, crabs, birds. The vegetation consisted of cactus and mangroves.
The thing that most pleased my children, however, was to see two huge whales jumping out of the water, a few hundred meters from the coast, not far from our ship.
In particular, while I was snorkeling, my wife and children had a whirlpool. While in the hot tub (which I remember, it was outdoors, aft of the ship), the whales started playing and jumping out of the water a few meters from the ship.
Reserva de Tortugas
The last day of the cruise we landed on the island of Santa Cruz and we went to to visit a colony of Galapagos, that is, the giant turtles that gave the entire archipelago its name.
After greeting the other cruise passengers, we headed to Puerto Ayora (the main inhabited center of the Galapagos islands) where we would have stayed for another three days. But this will be the subject of another post.
