Isla San Cristobal was the third and final island of our Galapagos adventures and it made our trip unforgettable. Our flight out of the Galapagos was on Saturday and we arrived on Wednesday evening, so we only had two full days to explore the island. We had been recommended to dive Kicker Rock by other divers we’d met on the islands, so before arriving we researched the dive shops on the island.
It turned out that the number one dive shop on the island, Wreck Bay, just happened to be doing Kicker Rock on Thursday! We were massively in luck.
We spent the entire day on Wednesday taking boats from Isla Isabella (one at 6am, the second at 2pm). When we arrived all we wanted was to find a place to lay our bags down and chill. Sadly this wouldn’t prove terribly easy because the only places we could find right away were all booked up.
Finding Somewhere to Sleep
We started walking along the beach front in the last direction we hadn’t searched yet and stumbled upon Wreck Bay, so we decided to drop in and say hi. Turns out they had been looking for us! One of the divers at the shop had come to the docks with a sign and my name printed on it but in our post-three-hour-boat-ride daze we hadn’t noticed and walked right past them.
The staff were all smiles to see us and were excited to get us to try on our wetsuits and gear, but we had to refuse because we still hadn’t found a place to stay. The owner then told us to drop our bags off and he came with us in search of a place!
We had heard of Hostel San Francisco so we asked about it but he said he had a place he wanted to bring us to, so we went with him around the corner to Luis Hotel, a narrow building of apartments that had been converted into a budget hotel. We still wanted to check out San Francisco so we kindly told the staff that we’d be back and went in search of San Francisco.
As typically seems to be the case, everyone gave us varying directions of where to find San Francisco and we ended up searching for about 20 minutes before finally finding it - right next to the dive shop! We were a bit miffed to find out that they had just booked up, so it looked like Luis Hotel was our best bet. We grabbed some dinner quickly and then passed out.
Diving Kicker Rock
The next morning we woke up bright and early and met the dive masters at the docks at 8:30am. The boat was already geared up so we hopped on and they took us for a quick tour of the shores.
Weather (Celcius)
Elevation (m)
Taxi Boats from Isla Isabella to Isla San Cristobal
| Time | Location |
|---|---|
| 5:31AM | In the cab to the docks. |
| 5:38AM | At agriculture inspections. |
| 5:59AM | On a taxi boat. |
| 6:10AM | On board the Neptuno. |
| 8:16AM | Transferred to a taxi boat. |
| 8:19AM | Waiting for bags. |
| 8:29AM | Unloaded at San Cristobal. |
| 1:28PM | On our way to the docks. |
| 2:04PM | On a taxi boat. |
| 2:09PM | On our way to San Cristobal! |
| 4:05PM | Arrived! |
Luis House
Staying here for $30/night.
La Playa
Excited to try!
SCUBA Diving at Kicker Rock
Holy shit Kicker Rock you don’t hold back!
We met up with the crew at 8:30AM on the pier and the boat was ready to go. We boarded and then cruised north along the coast of San Cristobal, checking out the port where Darwin first landed as we went. We did our check dive in a small bay and everything was good to go!
The ride to Kicker Rock was quick - less than half an hour. Once we arrived our dive master gave us a breakdown of how the dive would go. He taught us a bunch of hand signals to identify fish with which should have been a sign for what was to come.
For the first dive we crossed the gap between the two rocks. The first half of the dive was pretty basic and we saw plenty of puffer fish and other small fish swimming around. Shortly after letting a current push us further along we saw our first shark of the day: a white tip! This was immediately followed by a second, and a third, and then I decided to stop counting and just watch as we swam under, beside, and around too many sharks to count.
Birds
These birds were a blast to watch swim over the ocean as they’d dive bomb into the water to catch fish.
Puffer Fish
OMG HAMMERHEAD!
We can finally check this one off from our Galapagos to-do many, many times.
Galapagos Sharks
More Sharks!
And Turtles
Soooo cool to watch them swim!
Planet Fish
This was unreal. Here’s a video of this giant school of fish at Kicker Rock.
Eagle Ray
After-Dive Lunch
We were given a bunch of ingredients to make sandwiches after our dives.
Post-Dive Beachin’
Skullz
We found this skull on the beach!
Pelicans!
It’s so easy to get close to the wildlife in the Galapagos. This pelican was floating near the shore when I walked up to it to grab this photo.
Tsunami Cena
Really good $3 plate.
Cabaña mi Grande
The Desayuno Angel here was absolutely delicious! For $3 it came with a banana milkshake, eggs, and a scrumptious salty pancake made with cheese and fried plantain. Sooooo good.
Ship Repair Yard
We thought all of these ships were abandoned but this is apparently a repair yard.
Darwin's Finches
We went to the interpretation center on San Cristobal and learned about the history of the islands.
Election Rallies
While we were in the Galapagos they were throwing all sorts of rallies for the upcoming elections.
Parrillada San José
Holy shit the plates here are huge! For $15 you get a massive slice of beef, lamb, chicken, and two chorizos plus rice, beans, and a salad. The meat sadly didn’t taste as good as I’d hoped but it was definitely filling.
Flying from the Galapagos Islands to Guayaquil
| Time | Location |
|---|---|
| 8:00AM | Woke up to the guy upstairs testing out his hammer again. |
| 9:48AM | Grabbing breakfast at the $3 place. |
| 10:23AM | In a cab. |
| 10:33AM | Checked our bags and waiting to go through security. |
| 10:47AM | Through security. |
| 11:32AM | Take off! |
| 2:03PM | Touch down in Guayaquil! One hour ahead now. |
| 2:25PM | Picked up our bags. |
| 2:34PM | In a cab. |
| 2:56PM | Checked in to our bnb. |
Farewell Galapagos!
It was unreal!