the galápagos islands • 10 comments • Our adventures in the Galápagos Islands started with a short flight from Guayaquil. The following photo, taken through a scratched airplane window during the landing, doesn't do justice to the brilliant aquamarine colour of the water. It was unlike anything we had ever seen. The Galápagos Islands are an archipelago of 15 volcanic islands located off the coast of Ecuador. To visit you need to pay a park fee and adhere to a series of rules (cleaning your shoes when transiting between islands, among other things). Although it's possible to take a cruise to the Galápagos, we chose to fly to the island and visit them independently. San Cristóbal and Santa Cruz are two of the more popular islands and both have rudimentary airports. The airport for Santa Cruz is actually located on the island of Baltra (pictured below on the map). A free bus from the airport takes you to a ferry bound for Santa Cruz Island. Eighty cents and 2 minutes later, the ferry had shuttled us across the canal separating the two islands. The trip across the canal gave us our first glimpse of the amazing landscape. We were treated to a view of lush green vegetation, black volcanic rock, and, up-close, the turquoise water was even more vivid than it was from up in the sky.
