Located on the southern end of Santa Cruz, Puerto Ayora is a bustling little town with plenty of restaurants, shops, and hotels to meet any tourist’s needs. We passed through Santa Cruz on our initial arrival to the islands and had time for lunch in town before catching the afternoon ferry to Isabela. We returned at the end of our trip and spent three days here and really enjoyed the change of pace after our time in Puerto Villamil. The pier is the central point of town. Of course, inter-island ferries and day trip boats come and go from here, …

Our final stop on our Galapagos adventure, Los Gemelos (or the Twin Craters) are two giant sink holes formed when empty magma chambers in the ground below collapsed over time due to erosion and tectonic shifts. The craters were essentially the caved-in remains of huge versions of the lava tunnels we had walked through at nearby El Chato. I was glad that we stopped here after El Chato so that I wasn’t aware that the roof collapsing on the lava tunnels was a risk! The Twin Craters are found on either side of the main road through Santa Cruz. Our …

Located in the highlands of Santa Cruz, El Chato is a private tortoise reserve that is home to hundreds of Galapagos giant tortoises. Because the reserve is located between the Baltra airport and Puerto Ayora, many people stop here on the way to or from the airport. Our original 2020 itinerary had us staying on Santa Cruz at the beginning of our trip so we were planning to stop after our arrival from Quito. But when we rescheduled because of the pandemic, we flipped our itinerary and stayed on Isabela first so we ended up visiting El Chato on our …

The tour’s first stop at Mosquera Islet was such an unexpected surprise. I couldn’t believe what an incredible day it had been and we hadn’t even been to the main attraction yet. After lunch, we boarded the zodiac boat to go the short distance to North Seymour. With no beach to pull up to like on Mosquera, the zodiac pulled up to a rocky section of the island and the guide helped us all off the boat. The difference in landscape from Mosquera to North Seymour was striking. White sand beaches were replaced by red sand and rocks. Bare trees …

Our first stop on the North Seymour day trip was Mosquera Islet, one of the smallest islands in the archipelago. The tiny island is located in between Baltra and North Seymour. Standing in the center of the island, you can see the entire island from one place, as well as both Baltra to the south and North Seymour to the north. Yet somehow this tiny island had more sea lions and Sally Lightfoot crabs than I ever could have imagined in one place. Home to one of the largest sea lion colonies in the Galapagos, walking around on this tiny …

From Santa Cruz, there are several day trips available to uninhabited islands. Each island offers its own unique opportunities for wildlife viewing, hiking, and/or snorkeling. The most popular options from Santa Cruz include North Seymour, Bartolome, Sante Fe, Pinzon, South Plazas, and Floreana. For us, it came down to a choice between North Seymour and Bartolome. The Bartolome tour focuses on hiking and includes an opportunity to see the most iconic view of the islands. The North Seymour tour focuses on wildlife, with opportunities to see plentiful sea lions, blue-footed boobies, and magnificent frigatebirds. We ultimately chose wildlife over landscape, …

We took the early morning ferry from Isabela to Santa Cruz and planned to spend the first day on Santa Cruz exploring the island on our own. Our first stop was the Charles Darwin Research Station. It was a little longer walk from town than we expected, and the walk was made a little more stressful by the fact that we weren’t 100% sure we were going the right way. We hadn’t completely gotten our bearings in town yet but thankfully we were headed in the right direction and came to the Research Station after about 30 minutes. The Charles …