Lady’s Galapagos Cruise Photos

The Galapagos. The name of these islands conjures images of another world, a place where exotic animals live without fear of human contact. Pristine beaches are home to swimming iguanas and impossibly colorful crabs, and sea lions surf in the turquoise waves. I’m here and I want to share my Galapagos cruise photos with you.

The Galapagos Islands

I’ve wanted to visit the Galapagos for as long as I can remember. I’ve dreamed about Darwin’s finches and Coleridge’s albatross, giant tortoises and blue footed boobies. And now I’m here, and I can’t quite believe it.

Galapagos Cruise

I’ve landed at the little airport on San Cristobal Island and been ferried out to sea to board Yacht La Pinta for a three-day cruise in the Galapagos. I’m here as a guest of Metropolitan Touring, which owns the ship, and LAN, the airline that flew me to the islands.

The yacht offers a good standard of accommodation, if less luxurious than Casa Gangotena in Quito or Mashpi Lodge in the cloud forest.

The only snag is that they’ve given away two of my group’s rooms and I arrive to find myself assigned to share a room (and a bed, as it turns out!) with a married man 20 years my senior. He’s a great guy, but even I have my boundaries.

The situation is remedied as quickly as possible, and I’m re-assigned to room with a woman my age. She’s a great roommate, but has been bedridden with illness for the past three days.

By the end of the cruise I’ve come down with a nasty virus that I’m still recovering from (I don’t know if I caught it from her, but given how germs spread on cruise ships, it’s possible). It’s not a great start to the cruise, but I’m still in the Galapagos, so I can’t complain.

The cruise ship staff runs things in a very hands-on way and there is a steady stream of announcements over the ship’s loudspeaker—neither of which is my favorite thing—but once we’re off the boat and on the islands I’m fully focused on taking the best Galapagos cruise photos I can.

The guides are experts in their fields, able to answer every question we have about the Galapagos and their flora and fauna. There’s a good range of activities on offer, too, from guided walks to boat rides and snorkeling excursions.

Galapagos Cruise Photos

Over the course of our three-day cruise in the Galapagos, we visit three islands: San Cristobal, Espanola, and Santa Cruz. Here’s how it goes, complete with my Galapagos cruise photos…

San Cristobal Island

On San Cristobal, we visit the Cerro Colorado Tortoise Center, a breeding facility for endangered giant tortoises. It’s amazing to see them up close, even if not quite in the wild.

The drive to and from the center takes around 40 minutes each way, and en route I’m amazed at how chilly and misty it is. I later learn that due to currents, the Galapagos are much cooler than one might expect from an equatorial archipelago.

The next day Yacht La Pinta anchors just off Punta Pitt on San Cristobal Island. We take a guided walk up the cliffs and find ourselves within startlingly close distance of Darwin’s small ground finches, red footed boobies, and lava lizards.

Below us sea lions and iguanas lounge on the beach, and in the distance a huge pod of dolphins swims past. It’s overwhelming to see so much wildlife so close, but great for getting Galapagos cruise photos.

We round out the excursion by snorkeling just off the beach. Never in my life have I snorkeled with sea lions, but these friendly mammals seem as excited to see us as we are to see them. It’s completely surreal to watch them swim right up to us, ducking and diving around us as they go.

In the afternoon the ship arrives at Cerro Brujo and we take a boat ride along the sheer cliffs and under a natural rock arch. We watch pelicans dive and fish, and are awed by their grace and speed.

Later we go to a nearby beach where we’re greeted by an endless parade of sea lions. Many of them have babies that are only a few days old, and it’s amazing how close we can get without them even noticing our presence. I can’t imagine their cousins in San Francisco doing the same!

The beach is also filled with the brightest red crabs I’ve ever seen, and a few lonely iguanas that watch while we speed back to the cruise ship as the sun sets.

Espanola Island

The next morning we’re up early for another guided walk, this one on Espanola Island. As soon as we set foot on shore, we find ourselves greeted by curious baby sea lions, some of whom are body surfing in the sea as we approach. I can’t wait to get more Galapagos cruise photos here.

The island is amazing, not least because it is the only part of the world where the waved albatross comes to breed. It ends up being the best place I visit in the Galapagos.

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During our walk around Punta Suarez, we see said albatrosses doing their mating dance, and the famous blue footed boobies caring for their newborn chicks. Swallow tail gulls round out the avian scene.

On the ground there’s a lot of life, too. Iguanas, for example. There are so many iguanas on Punta Suarez that it’s difficult to walk without stepping on them.

They lie in packs to share body heat, soaking up the sun on the rocks. Like the sea lions and birds, they let us get remarkably close to them, as incurious about us as we are curious about them. Their lack of fear allows me to get some great Galapagos cruise photos of them.

In the afternoon the cruise ship arrives at Gardner Bay on Espanola Island. We go snorkeling, again with sea lions.

We also see a gorgeous spotted eagle ray gliding along the coral, and plenty of tropical fish. I even get to watch from below as a pelican fills its beak with its catch of the day.

Despite wearing wetsuits, the water is cold, so we decamp to one of the most beautiful white-sand beaches I’ve ever seen. There are more sea lions here, and more adorable babies.

Santa Cruz Island

On our last morning in the Galapagos, the cruise ship arrives at Santa Cruz Island. We disembark and head to the Charles Darwin Research Station, where there are giant tortoises and iguanas living in captivity.

This is where the famous Lonesome George lived before his passing, and his pen is kept empty in memory. I wish I had been able to visit when he was alive, but I still get some good Galapagos cruise photos of his fellow tortoises.

Galapagos Cruise Photos and Beyond

After our visit, we board a boat to Baltra Island, where our flight departs for Guayaquil. I can’t believe I have to travel back to London after such an otherworldly experience in Ecuador.

There are so many more islands to see, each with its own unique animal, bird, and plant life. That said, it gives me an excuse to return someday to see more of the Galapagos and take more Galapagos cruise photos. Which I will definitely do, if only to remind myself that these islands really exist.

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