Welcome to Paradise: Galápagos Islands - San Cristóbal

We can hardly believe it! After about 19 hours in buses, taxis, and airplanes, we finally arrived in paradise. Paradise? That's definitely the Galapagos Islands!!! We are shockingly in love from the first second!

Our journey took us from San Pedro de Atacama in Chile to Calama (also Chile), from there by plane to Santiago de Chile, then by plane to Guayaquil in Ecuador, and finally to San Cristóbal, an island of Galápagos, after an uncomfortable night at the airport. A little odyssey, but it was more than worth it.

We spend our first day catching up on sleep, then we have lunch and head to the water. The sea shimmers in the most beautiful shades of blue in the sun and we are amazed. Just a few steps further, we can hardly believe our eyes when we see dozens of seals lying comfortably on the beach. They snore, squeak, roar, grunt, yawn, and bellow from all corners... They roll in the sand, glide elegantly through the water, waddle clumsily through the sand, heave themselves onto benches and rocks, fight or play with each other, and feed the little ones. These seals are currently the funniest animals in the world for us and we can't get enough of them!

But we want to explore the town a bit more to find an agency that offers the "360 Tour" around the island. It should be noted that this tour (like almost all tours here) is not cheap at $150-180 US dollars, but it was highly recommended, so we decided to spend the money. There are numerous providers for this and eventually we find one that suits our taste.

We spend the rest of the day with a long walk past the interesting Galápagos Interpretation Center museum (free!) to a viewpoint over the island. We notice that it is very dry here. The trees are bare and there are almost only giant cacti. Below us, the sea crashes against the lava rocks and into the bays of the volcanic island. On the way back, we suddenly stumble upon a small beach where many seals have made themselves comfortable. We decide to sit down in the sand with them and enjoy the beautiful sunset. We still can't believe that we're just sitting here in the midst of a horde of seals, from babies to big machos, experiencing them up close! Some of them even come very close, unabashed and curious, getting as close as about 50cm, which is not necessarily encouraging with the heavy males...

When a fresh breeze sets in, we finally make our way to the restaurant. The prices here are quite high and almost more expensive than in Germany... You have to look a little, but then you can find cheaper options and at least everything is freshly caught from the sea.

And already the next morning dawns and we board the boat for our 360 Tour. Our group of 12 is a colorful mix of ages and nationalities, the guide speaks good English, the crew is nice, and the large motorboat is making its maiden voyage today. So everything is ready for a perfect day. And it will be!

On the way to our first stop, our guides put two fishing lines in the water to catch a little snack for us. After a short time, the fishing line pulls and there is a huge predatory fish on it. So the ceviche for later is secured.

We stop in a bay with crystal clear water and the boat is immediately surrounded by sharks. They probably smell the fish we just caught. Nevertheless, we dare to jump out of the boat into the knee-deep water and wade to the beach. We are greeted by powdery white sand, which we have never felt between our toes before. We walk a little further over lava rocks and encounter the first blue-footed boobies - the well-known birds with blue feet. A little further on, we reach our first snorkeling spot. In the relatively shallow and calm water, we encounter reef sharks, stingrays, sea turtles, seals, and all sorts of colorful fish.

This place is perfect for getting back into snorkeling and we are already excited to see all these animals in their natural habitat. We walk back to the perfect white beach and have some time there to relax. Back on the boat, ceviche made from the freshly caught fish is waiting for us! Very delicious :)

As we continue, we pass a small group of red-footed boobies, although almost all of them hide their red feet in bushes and nests with fluffy chicks. We can only catch a brief glimpse of the flippers of two birds in flight.

Then we are very lucky and see a school of melon-head whales in front of us, which actually belong to the dolphin family. They are larger than regular dolphins and gracefully jump through the water right next to our boat.

After lunch on the boat (there are unfortunately too many flies on the beach), we head to Kicker Rock, a rock formation in the middle of the sea. Various marine creatures like to gather here, so we eagerly jump into the cool water with our snorkels again. And this time the water is really cold! Long or at least short wetsuits are highly recommended. We let ourselves be carried by the strong current through the two rocks and actually see a hammerhead shark! The luck lasts only a short time, but many people are not fortunate enough to see these amazing animals. We also encounter a turtle and a seal that really wants to play with Tina and does somersaults in front of her. What an experience!

We are overjoyed, but also very tired from so many adventures today...

We enjoyed our trip to the seal beach on the first day so much that we extend our walk on the 3rd day and head to the other viewpoints on the island. Colored lizards and cheeky Darwin's finches cross our path again and again. We gaze out over the sea, settle down in a bay with a snack, and of course, watch the seals on the beach again. Frigatebirds glide through the air above our heads. Then we head to the port, where we take a small ferry to the next island. Next stop: Santa Cruz!