In Puerto Ayora, there’s an agency for excursions of every kind every five meters. Whether you want a land trip, a hike, snorkeling, a boat tour, or diving, no wish goes unfulfilled.

Since cruising around on your own boat is either forbidden or simply impractical in the Galápagos, we don’t move Nikola from her initial anchorage. Instead, we take organized tours or the ferries between the individual islands.

Snorkeling around Daphne

The first tour takes us underwater. We dive through shoals of fish along the rocky coast of the small volcanic island of Daphne. After that, we snorkel around a tiny rock inhabited by boobies, pelicans, sea lions, and sharks. Finally, we visit one of the most beautiful beaches we’ve ever seen. It has powdery sand, vivid blue water, and baby hammerhead sharks swimming around our feet.

Flamingos and Penguins on Isabela

Instead of booking yet another worthwhile but exhausting day trip, we take the ferry to Isabela and stay two nights in a hotel. The four-hour crossing is wild. The ferry fleet consists of countless small motorboats with lots of outboards. At three o’clock sharp, the boats thunder off in every direction.

Isabela is different. Puerto Villamil is a quiet beach village with sandy roads, flamingo lagoon, and surfer vibe. We explore it by bike and discover remote beaches and viewpoints. The only rule is: don’t ride into a tortoise or fall into a lava tunnel!

Isabela has six volcanoes, five of them active. The last major eruption was in 2018 in the caldera of Sierra Negra, which is also home to the sulfur mines we visit with an organized tour. Despite the heat, we’re glad to have sweated our way up through the caldera and its otherworldly landscape.

Iconic Rocks on Bartolomé

The one thing still missing on our Galapagos Bingo card is penguins. Back on Santa Cruz, we climb into a bus and a boat once more to take a tour up north to the small island of Bartolomé. The difference from Santa Cruz is striking. Not a single shrub grows on the volcanic rock. Instead it offers spectacular views and the most incredible contrasts.

Underwater, our wish comes true. Penguins join us and the hundreds of fish of every size and color. Undeterred, they hunt the little fish along the rock edge, sometimes shooting swiftly past us, sometimes paddling calmly ahead of us. What a spectacle! And what a way to end our time in the Galápagos Islands!