When traveling internationally with kids, you are bound to have some uncomfortable moments. Our most notable one to date had been a nerve-racking border crossing from Belize to Guatemala and an equally nerve-racking drive back to the border when our driver stopped to pick up a mystery package hidden on the side of the road. If you’re lucky, you get through those moments safely and they become part of a great story that your kids will tell their kids one day.
We added another one of those moments to our family travel history on our day tour to Los Tuneles in Isabela. We had such a terrifying boat ride to Los Tuneles that I distinctly remember turning to my husband with tears in my eyes and mouthing “I’m sorry” because I was certain I had led us all to a watery grave. While it does indeed make a great story now, in all honesty, that boat had no business being out on the water that day.
But let’s start at the beginning. Los Tuneles was the last tour in our 5D/4N package with Iguana Crossing Boutique Hotel. Like our other boat-based outing (Las Tintoreras) this was a shared tour. The truck picked us up first and then picked up two others couples at their hotels. From there we stopped in town to get fitted for snorkel gear and then headed to the harbor.
In the Galapagos, we quickly found that you never get on your boat directly from the dock. There is always a boat to the boat, and this trip was no exception. We soon boarded a small boat that took us out to the Galapagos Adventure.
Upon boarding the main boat, there were 3 immediate signs that this was going to be an interesting boat ride:
- We were all told to actually put on our life jackets. Every boat we had been on before of course had life jackets easily accessible if needed, but none of them (even the vomit-inducing ferry from Santa Cruz) actually required us wear them.
- The people at the back of the boat were given bright yellow rain jackets to wear.
- There was a crew member on the boat whose main job was to balance the boat, shifting his weight from one side to the other as needed. He was very serious and he moved often.
The water was extremely choppy in the harbor, which was a bad sign too. I was immediately concerned about getting sea sick again. It seemed inevitable. As we made it out into open water, the ride was so much worse than the ferry had been (something I never could have imagined 3 days earlier). I have never focused so hard on the horizon. In retrospect, my hyper-focus on not getting sick probably kept me from being more terrified for most of the ride, which was a good thing.
We stopped briefly at a rocky outcrop in the ocean called Roca Union. The rock is a well-known resting place for Pelicans, Blue-Footed Boobies, and Nazca Boobies. We hadn’t seen Nazca Boobies on the trip but at this point I was more worried about seeing my breakfast again than seeing the birds. With the boat stopped in the middle of the choppy sea, we rocked up and down violently. I’m not sure if anyone got a good view of the birds on the rock but I just focused on the horizon and on not cursing in front of my kids.
Eventually we moved on and continued the trip to Los Tuneles. It continued to be extremely rough and the crew member whose job was to balance the boat stared almost as intently at the horizon as I did and moved from one side of the boat to the other based on the angle of the horizon. At one point he was sitting next to my oldest son when we hit a huge bump that launched my son into the air. Without even lifting his eyes from the horizon, he reached out and grabbed my son by the life jacket and in one swift motion pulled him back down onto the seat. It was amazing and terrifying at the same time.
As we neared our destination, I thought the worst was behind us. Boy was I wrong. When our guide told us that Los Tuneles was just ahead, I was briefly relieved – until I saw what was between us and the site. The reef break in the open ocean before us was absolutely huge. I have never seen anything like it. Seeing enormous waves breaking so far out in the water that they never even reached the shore was something completely new to me. And the fact that we had to ride through the break to get to Los Tuneles was terrifying.
Our guide explained to us that the captain would wait on this side of the break until just the right moment and then push through to the other side. We bobbed up and down violently in the water as he watched the break intently, sometimes revving his motor when he thought he saw an opening. A few times he went so far as to punch the motor and rush towards the break only to pull away at the last second. After our third failed attempt at breaking through, I really thought I had brought us all to our deaths. I had read so many reviews of this trip and though some casually mentioned some rough seas, nothing had indicated that this was even a remote possibility.
Finally, after 6 or 7 failed attempts to break through, our guide came down from the top of the boat and said “el capitan has decided that it is too dangerous and we will move on to the next site”. I think all of the passengers collectively breathed a sigh of relief. As much as I wanted to see Los Tuneles, I couldn’t take the harrowing experience much longer. The boat pulled away, following the line of the break. But just as I began to relax, he suddenly made a sharp turn inland and punched the motor and before any of us knew what had happened, we were inside the break. Apparently the captain saw one last opening and went for it.
We were all so relieved to be on the other side and immediately amazed at how calm things were. It was like a whole other world inside the break. And it only got more amazing as we slowly made our way to Los Tuneles.
I’m actually a little confused about the “normal” tour activities. I had read some reviews that said you aren’t allowed to snorkel here but our guide had put on his wet suit and appeared ready to get in. But when he took a look at my oldest son who was as white as a ghost and just barely holding down his breakfast, he said we would do the land part first. So the boat pulled up to the side of a rock formation and we all got off to walk around.
Wow. There are no words to describe the landscape of Los Tuneles. We had been blown away by the uniqueness of Las Tintoreras but this was a whole other level. The Galapagos is most famous for its wildlife but the landscape is every bit as amazing. There is nothing else in the world like it.
Formed by lava flows, Los Tuneles is a series of geological arches and tunnels that create a protected habitat for many land and marine species. Our guide walked around the rocky terrain, explaining the geological phenomenon. My oldest immediately felt better on land and he and my husband went on the tour while my youngest and I sat on the edge of one of the largest pools, recovering from the rough trip and taking it all in.
From our spot on the edge of the lagoon, we watched penguins dart around the rocks and jump into the water and splash around. We saw giant sea turtles swim slowly across the water and pop their heads up to the surface every now and then. We saw birds fly by and improbably land on cactus. It was so quiet and peaceful and such a fantastic experience to just sit and watch the wildlife against this amazing backdrop.
The tour retuned back to the starting point and our guide was nice enough to take pictures of each group standing on one of the beautiful arches.
The clouds started to finally lift before we finished our “land” time and the area looked even more stunning against the blue sky.
We got back on the boat and had lunch. We were each given a thermos with rice and fresh fish. After we finished eating we left the site without snorkeling. Again, I am not certain if tours normally snorkel here or not. I don’t know if we skipped it because we ran out of time due to the difficulty we had getting through the reef break or if it was the plan all along to snorkel at a second spot. (The one other boat out that day also did not snorkel here.) Regardless, the experience of walking on the lava tunnels and watching the wildlife from there was still unbelievable. The water was crystal clear and we could see so much just from our spot on the rocks. It was a completely different experience than snorkeling through the tunnels for sure but no less amazing in my mind.
As the boat headed to our snorkeling spot, we got an extra treat – a dozen or so penguins were hanging out on the rocks on our way out. This was our best penguin-spotting the whole trip. Amazing!
Seeing the penguins softened the blow when I realized what was about to happen. Just as we had come in through the reef break, we also had to go out through it. Thankfully, the wait to go out was so much better than coming in because we were on the calm side of the break. We didn’t have to wait nearly as long before our captain saw his opening and drove through the breaking waves. I was so relieved to have that behind us and even more relieved to discover that access to the snorkeling site was much easier.
The boat anchored in a protected area surrounded by mangroves and some smaller lava tunnels. This spot was beautiful in its own right. The landscape was different than Los Tuneles but still unique and the larger open water area looked perfect for snorkeling. We got our gear on and jumped off the side of the boat.
It didn’t take long before we started seeing some amazing underwater creatures. First, some colorful fish! (Please excuse the poor quality screenshots from GoPro videos taken by my 13 year old…)
Then we followed our guide to peer into a cave where there were about a dozen whitetip reef sharks lounging around on the ocean floor. Yes, sharks! And lots of them. One swam around slowly but the others just laid in the sand, completely uninterested in us.
Our guide took us out further into the water, away from the caves and mangroves. And there were turtles! Everywhere! It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. They were huge yet graceful as they swam slowly along the ocean floor eating algae off the rocks. Truly incredible. There were so many of them and they blended in with their surroundings so you had to be really careful not to accidentally swim into any of them.
Though we loosely stayed with the guide, we were free to follow around the turtles or go out and explore on our own within the protected area around the boat. He did call us all back together for one last surprise – a sea horse! It was amazing to see it with its tail wrapped around a branch underwater. I’ve snorkeled from Hawaii to Belize to the Great Barrier Reef and never seen a sea horse before. There are so many opportunities to see rare or unique wildlife in the Galapagos.
This snorkeling experience was much better than our experience at Las Tintoreras. The water was much calmer and clearer. Our youngest really struggled at Las Tintoreras but he thrived here. (He also decided to forego a snorkeling mask and just swim with flippers and regular swimming goggles. It was a great solution for him – he was much more comfortable holding his breath than he was trying to breathe through a snorkel and he got to enjoy the experience so much more because he could focus on the wildlife and not his mask.)
After about 45 minutes to an hour, we all headed back to the boat. We dried off and then climbed onto the bow of the boat to relax and take in the views. The crew cut up some fresh fruit for us and we all had time to reflect on the amazing day we had just experienced.
Of course we still had to go back to Puerto Villamil. Though there was a small break surrounding this area, it was nothing like around Los Tuneles and getting out into the open water was a non-event. The trip back was by no means smooth but the weather had improved as the day went on, and the ride was very rough but not bad enough to make you see your entire life flash before your eyes.
I’ve gone back since our trip to read more reviews and can find very few if any that discuss the degree of rough seas that we encountered. My assumption is that no reviews mention it because in a normal year a boat never would have gone out in these conditions. But with tourism in the Galapagos still at around 20% of its pre-covid levels, I would guess that cancelling a tour now has considerable consequences for the people whose livelihood depend on them. The captain, guide, and crew were obviously on the boat with us so our fate was intertwined. I truly don’t think they exceeded their own comfort level or they would have turned back or gone somewhere else. But they very definitely exceeded our comfort level, especially with our kids involved.
But was it worth it? That is always the question. Of course sitting here writing this from the safety and comfort of our own home, I can now say that it was absolutely worth it. Los Tuneles was the highlight of a trip that is one of the highlights of all our travels. The landscape of Los Tuneles is truly stunning and its beauty can really only be grasped in person. Pictures don’t do it justice. And swimming so close to reef sharks, sea turtles and sea horses was a once in a lifetime opportunity.
But would I do it again knowing what I know now? That’s a different and tougher question. I don’t think that I could knowingly put my family onto a boat in those conditions again. But I think it’s fair to say that about 99% of the time this is a completely reasonable trip that even on bad days is no worse than the ferry crossing from Santa Cruz. So my advice would be to check the conditions first and as long as it isn’t in that 1%, go and enjoy one of the best experiences Isabela has to offer.
For us, I’ll just be thankful that we made it there safely and got to see this magnificent place. We surely made memories on that day that will last a lifetime, and our boys have another great story to tell their kids one day.
