GalapagosTravel Stories:
Honeymoon Aboard The Beagle
Seven days sailing through the Galapagos Islands on a 105-foot schooner, surrounded by giant tortoises, marine iguanas, blue-footed boobies, flamingos, sharks, sea turtles, sea lions, Darwin’s finches, volcanic landscapes, and an ocean so alive it felt almost impossible.
Aboard The Beagle: Seven Days Through the Galapagos
The trip officially began in Puerto Ayora, where we boarded a 105-foot schooner named The Beagle, after Charles Darwin’s famous ship.
By coincidence, we were there in 2009, the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
For seven days, The Beagle carried us through the islands, from Santa Cruz to Floreana, San Cristobal, Santa Fe, Santiago, Bartolomé, and beyond.
We saw giant land and see tortoises that were more than 100 years old, moving slowly through a landscape that felt almost prehistoric.
A Living Natural History Museum
There were land iguanas, marine iguanas, blue-footed boobies, Darwin’s finches, and brightly coloured Sally Lightfoot crabs scattered across the black volcanic rock.
The male frigatebirds were unforgettable, puffing out their huge red gular pouches and making strange bill-clacking, drumming sounds to attract a mate.
Some days felt like walking through a living natural history museum, except nothing was behind glass.
The landscape changed from island to island in a way that made the Galapagos feel less like one destination and more like a chain of separate worlds. Some places were black volcanic rock and dry, rugged earth. Others were softer, greener, and filled with birds, cactus, colour, and strange little details that seemed to belong only to that island. The geology, the plants, the wildlife, and even the feeling of the ground beneath our feet kept shifting, reminding us how alive and unfinished these islands still felt.
Volcanic landscapes, shifting colours, and islands that each felt entirely their own.
But as alive as the land was, the ocean was even more unbelievable.
We snorkelled almost every day with white-tip reef sharks, Galapagos sharks, rays, sea turtles, pufferfish, sea lions, seals, and endless schools of fish.
There was so much life in the water that it was hard to believe the ocean could be that full, that vibrant, and that alive.
The Galapagos felt like a place where the natural world had not been pushed aside for people.
It felt ancient, fragile, wild, and generous all at once.
It was the kind of trip that changes the scale of what you think travel can be.
The Galapagos was our honeymoon, but it was also one of the great privileges of our lives.
A once-in-a-lifetime journey that we wish every person could experience.