I left Santa Cruz early in the morning to get the public ferry over to Isabela island. The journey was amazing, and I saw SOOO MANY Giant Mantas from the boat, especially since I was sat on the top deck with the driver and just 3 other tourists.
Arriving in Isabela, I instantly felt the contrast to Santa Cruz, not that any of the Galapagos islands I visited were “built-up”, but Isabela is certainly more chilled and less built-up than Santa Cruz. I instantly fell in love, and I think Isabela was my favourite island of the 3 I visited.
I checked into my hotel, which was an amazing beachfront apartment for a very affordable price. And then headed out to find a bike. The little town square of Puerto Vilamil was very quaint.
On the bike, I went to grab some food at a little vegan place on the beach. Although it was harder to be vegan on the islands than it was on the mainland, it was still possible, and this little burger joint was amazing!
After lunch, I took my bike as fas West as I could along the long sandy beach, towards a region known as El Estero, which was mangroves, more sinkholes and caves and sandy beaches.
That evening I ate in the town and watched a beautiful sunset.
The next day, I had booked a day tour to visit and Snorkel quite close to where I had visited the day before. To the west of Puerto Vilamil is a region known as Los Tuneles (the Tunnels) because of the lava formations where lava tunnels have essentially been weathered into natural bridges, tunnels, caves and sinkholes.
It was my favourite snorkelling spot in the whole Galapagos, as we saw so many baby black tip sharks, white tip sharks, golden rays, sea horses, pufferfish and literally hundreds of turtles.
After the snorkelling, we also went on land, on some of the lava tunnel bridges, and saw many blue-footed boobies.
It was a really amazing day!
The following day, in the morning, I went down to Concha la Perla which is within walking distance of the town. From the pier here, you can go snorkelling on your own and potentially swim with seals and marine iguanas. I was able to do both. However, the seal, I couldn’t tell if it was trying to play with me, or bite me!! haha. The marine iguana was much more peaceful to swim with.
Then in the afternoon, I booked a day trip called “Tintoreras” which was to snorkel in the channels with white tip reef sharks. We first walked across the island, and looked down into the channels, before donning our gear and swimming through them. It was amazing, and felt like I swam with over 100 sharks, it must have been, perhaps close to 200! What an experience!
On the final day on Isabela, I had decided to book a last minute evening flight to San Cristobal directly, rather than the alternative, which was a full day of boat rides, first returning to Santa Cruz, then over to San Cristobal, so I essentially had a free day I wasn’t expecting…
I rented a little electric moped kind of thing, which looked a little funny, but had enough charge to take me up into the highlands, past a flamingo lake and back again.
The highlands were beautiful, and I really thought I went super far North, as I was driving for a long time (I had wanted to visit the view point for Sierra Negra Crater), but when I checked the map, I had only reached Mirador el Mango(!), which is a fraction of a way into Isabela island, and I suddenly appreciated how vast this island is. My battery had depleted to 50%, and although most of the journey was uphill (I knew I would use less power going back) I didn’t want to risk going further by trying to reach the crater, so I turned back around and headed through the lava fields to the North of Vilamil (and past the airport).
I absolutely LOVED Isabela, the island was just beautiful, but the snorkelling was unreal. I did a few of my trips with a company on the Island called Pahoehoe, and they told me about another place just off Isabela where you can see Hammerheads regularly. Unfortunately, I had arrived on the island the day they do the Tour, which started before I arrived, and it’s only a once-a-week tour, so I was absolutley gutted. But if I return to the Galapagos, I think I would stay only on this island, and visit the inland craters to see the land iguanas, as well as try and book the trip to see hammerheads. I do hope I can return one day 🙂
See all my videos from Isabela here:
Travel Alchemist 
What are your best Travel Tips?