Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos Islands have been on our travel shortlist for ages, and 2025 was finally the year we made it happen! Our journey kicked off with a 17-hour trek that landed us in Quito, Ecuador’s historic capital, smack in the middle of the night. We had a reservation at a hotel near the airport, and as we stumbled out of the taxi, alpacas were right there waiting to greet us. Just casually wandering around like they were part of the check-in crew. The boys lost it. “Free animals with the room? Woohoo!” It was the perfect quirky welcome to Ecuador.

Shortly after getting settled into our room, we realized we were REALLY close to the airport. Like right under the flight path of the planes. Every so often the room would rumble as planes would fly over. But we didn’t give a rip and we had no problem going straight to bed. 

After a decent night’s sleep, we were up early and ready to tackle the city of Quito. But first, the boys took off to get in playtime with the hotel’s roaming alpacas, llamas, cats, and dogs. It was like a petting zoo had taken over the grounds—total chaos, lots of fun. The alpacas were a bit TOO friendly and tended to jog towards you, which was kind of intimidating. One of the cats (the boys named Jeremy) took a liking to Tyson’s leg when he was petting it and showed him what claws of an excited cat can do to your pant leg. Took a bit of shaking (literally), but we finally pried them away and grabbed a taxi into the city. That’s when the animal experience really took a turn. When we were about halfway up the mountain to get to the city, a large stray dog bolted across the street, dodging a bus that was in the lane next to us by a hair. Unfortunately, that set it straight in front our taxi. We all squealed as the driver accidentally ran it over. I whipped around to check the back window—thankfully, the pup hobbled off to safety. Bruised but alive. What a way to start the trip!
 
When we got into the heart of Quito, we checked into Chakana Hotel Boutique, a cozy spot just a short stroll from the historic core of the city. After dropping our bags in our room, we wandered out for lunch and landed at Cafe Plaza Grande. Ummm, with live saxophone music? Sold! Halfway through our meal, the lights dimmed, a traditional song started playing, and out came a strange person in a purple robe and a tall, pointy hat (picture the KKK)--- and delivered dessert to another table. We all just sat there flabbergasted, forks hovering, trying to process the randomness. After a quick Grok search, we learned it was part of a religious tradition in the area …Ecuador, you’re full of surprises.

​Post-lunch, we roamed Quito’s cobblestone streets and ended up at Santo Domingo Church. We snagged tickets for their dome tour, and wow, was it worth it. The guide led us up a steep, winding staircase through the innards of the church walls—narrow enough to make you question the size of lunch we just had—until we popped out onto the church’s dome roofs. The boys scrambled up like the little adventurers they are, and we snapped some stunning pics with the old city sprawled below. It was a really cool experience!

The day wasn’t done yet. Tyson and Wesley sniffed out a dessert shop, and soon we were nose-deep in a strawberry-banana-Nutella crepe and an Oreo shake. They were in sugar nirvana, and I was just happy to soak in the Quito vibe. That night, we were too wiped for our dinner reservation, so we ordered some ‘local’ Italian via Uber Eats and crashed with a movie in our room. Perfect first day.

Next morning, it was finally time to make our way to the Galapagos Islands so we eagerly boarded our two-hour flight to Baltra Island. After landing on the small island the airport is situated on, the customs agent checked our passports and then passed us over to another guy that just looked at us and said, “OK, $600” and stuck out his hand for payment. WHAT? Why? He then pointed at me and said “$200”, then to Marshall “$200” then to each of the boys, “$100 and $100”.  He said it was a park entrance fee. Marshall immediately Grok’d it and sure enough, it’s a required charge for every tourist. Wow, didn’t see that mentioned anywhere in the process of booking the trip! Apparently the money goes towards conservation and supporting the animals and parks, but really?
 
Luckily, when we got out of the airport, our tour guide was standing there with a smile and a sign and led us to our very own private luxury bus—fancy! He whisked us away to experience the island. The bus drove slow at first, winding down a long, curvy road. The tour guide said he had to drive slow because there was a special ‘yellow iguana’ that lived only on that island. If the driver accidentally drove over one (don’t want that experience again), it’d be a $20,000 fine! Once we got past the iguana gauntlet, we were taken to a massive sinkhole. It was one of the largest on the island and the main reason most islands in the Galapagos cannot retain rainwater as it goes through these sinkholes and into the sea. So interesting!
 
The next stop on the tour was a lava tunnel that was discovered just 25 years ago. So cool walking all the way through the long tunnel, dodging our heads along the way in low areas. One spot was so tight we had to belly-crawl under a massive boulder. The boys thought it was epic; I was just glad I didn’t get too muddy, lol.

Our last stop of the tour was the giant tortoise conservation area, but hunger hit first, so we grabbed lunch at the onsite restaurant. Wesley was stoked to try the yellowfin tuna—he’s turning into a little foodie and absolutely loves trying new types of seafood. When we wandered into the nature preserve next door, holy moly, those giant tortoises were…GIGANTIC! Some were over 400 pounds and 150 years old. We just stood there, staring at these living dinosaurs roaming around like it was no big deal. Each of them eats over 80 lbs per DAY of grass and vegetation. That’s more than Tyson weighs! The boys even got to try on a giant shell and pretend to be a tortoise, lol.

After the tour, our driver dropped us at Hotel Fiesta in Santa Cruz, where we had a private bungalow awaiting us. It’d been a long day and the pool was calling. The boys went immediately with Marshall and jumped in and started playing Marco Polo. It only took about 5 minutes for some random guy to come out of his room and ask them to be quiet because he was trying to sleep. Dude, it’s like 4pm. So the boys continued the ‘whisper’ version of Marco Polo and still had a blast. They didn’t last long in the pool though, as they noticed the 3 connected hot tubs with raging jets. Marshall went out to grab some pizzas for dinner while the boys and I soaked. After a little while, we all realized were all beat so we decided to eat the pizza in the room and watch American Ninja Warrior in Spanish to settle in for the night. Sometimes, you just need relax nights.

The next day, we caught an early two-hour ferry to Isla Isabela, famous for its jaw-dropping beaches and snorkeling. The process of getting there requires you to get on a small fishing boat that holds about 12 people and takes you to a little bit of a bigger boat that holds maybe 50. When we got on the small fishing boat the guy driving the boat charged everyone for $1 each for the ride. Oh no! The smallest bill we had was $100 from the ATM at the airport. The guy looked at Marshall like he was crazy that he could split that. Marshall had to ask the only other person who spoke English on the boat and thankfully she had just enough to give us change. PHEW! We’ve run into situations where we didn’t have enough, or the right currency, but never had too much.
 
Either way, we were thankful and got on the 2-hour ferry which was really fun and felt like we were traveling super fast in the back row. Wesley and Tyson took turns going in the very back with Marshall to watch the birds carve the waves and see fish jump at the side of the boat while I took a nice nap up at the front.
 
When we arrived at the next island, we were welcomed with yet another ~$100 charge to get on the island. ‘Lucky’ for us, that was the total, not per person, but dang – these fees keep stacking up. We then went to our hotel and dropped our bags off before we jumped on a tour bus to take us to the pier for a boating adventure. First up: penguins, blue-footed boobies, sea lions, and pelicans—wildlife central! We docked at a small island that was like a Mars-scape of lava rocks and wandered around for a while, spotting sea turtles and iguanas everywhere. It was mating season, so we had to step over iguanas digging holes everywhere to bury their eggs—nature in action. Back on the boat, we hit up a shallow snorkeling spot. I wasn’t feeling great, so I stayed aboard while the boys dove in. They came up raving about seahorses, sea turtles, anemones, and colorful parrotfish.

After the tour, we changed and walked a few blocks to a little town for dinner. We’d barely sat down at an outdoor restaurant when a huge black cloud blew over us and poured down like we’d never seen before. We were assured by the staff that the table under the awning was fine… until it started leaking all over us. We scrambled to an indoor table with an open roof but had just enough cover to stay dry. By the time we finished, the streets were flooded for our walk back—sloshing through ankle-deep water like champs. 

Next morning, we hit up Isla Isabela’s white-sand beach. The boys went body surfing while I dipped my toes in along the shore. There were eagle rays, black tip sharks, and even some sea lions that joined them to surf the waves as well. Pretty magical experience for everyone!
 
A little while later, we noticed a staircase on the beach leading to a scenic lookout, but it ended up being an iguana obstacle course—dozens of them and their babies lounging on each of the steps. We tiptoed over them to reach the top for a killer photo. Afterwards, lunch was at a beachside spot, but island time struck again. We thought we had plenty of time before our ferry left, but it ended up taking over an hour to get our food, leaving us just a few minutes to scarf it down before we bolted back to the hotel. We tried waving down a taxi that didn’t understand where we needed to go, so we decided to jog the rest of the way. After grabbing our bags, Marshall flagged down a taxi that happened to be the same confused driver as before—luckily, the driver finally figured out where we were going after using Google Translate and we made it to the ferry just in time.

Back in Santa Cruz, we walked from the pier to Hotel Las Ninfas passing by the most adorable snuggling sea lions We freshened up and took a special water taxi to Finch Bay Resort for an oceanside dinner. The food was amazing, the sunset was unreal, and the boys loved their iced chocolate drinks—unique flavors that kept them guessing.

Day four in the Galapagos was chill. The islands towns were surprisingly empty, not many tourists at all. We must have gone in an off-season. We’ll take it! We hit the Charles Darwin Breeding Center to learn more about the gigantic tortoises, full of ‘tiny’ five-year-old ones and a few massive old-timers. They had a mini museum too, with whale skeletons and other animals to learn more about—super cool. 

We moved to our final hotel of the trip – saved the best for last! It was a castle hotel and we were lucky enough to stay in the tower suite. Awww yeah! It had three levels capped with an ocean-view terrace. We were the only ones at the entire hotel, so we had the place to ourselves! It was luxurious and super fun to lounge by the pool.
 
We found a great Mexican spot for lunch and strolled around town, passing by beautiful mosaic tiled walls tucked down a side alley. It wasn’t long before the boys wanted to head back for a long swim, playing Marco Polo until our fingers pruned. 

Dinner was at a beautiful oceanfront restaurant called The Pointe. It had an amazing view of the water and many sharks, red crabs, and unique birds surrounding us. Couldn’t have asked for a better way to end to the day!

Our last day, we grabbed frappes and roamed Santa Cruz, popping into a free museum for an hour. Lunch was at The Rock, the island’s first bar, before a one-hour drive to the airport. We flew two hours back to Quito, then an hour to Bogota for a long layover overnight. Exhausted but buzzing from an epic trip.

​The Galapagos delivered—wild animals, wild moments, and memories we’ll be talking about for years. We couldn’t imagine, but where we went next would top that!