An Introduction: The Galápagos?

As my first post, let me introduce our family. We’re the Kunens: Laura and Isaac, and our two kids, E. (12) and G. (10). We love to travel and we love to take photos. We began this blog to share our adventures and photos without the usual social media sites. We started this primarily as a way to share with family and friends, but we hope this blog makes its way to other families who love to travel, want to hear others’ travel stories, or are researching travel adventures of their own. 

Here we go!

During the summer of 2022, we spent two weeks in Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands.  But the story doesn’t start there.

While spending 2020/21 locked in Covid purgatory, we started to dream of a big, fancy trip. We asked the kids for ideas and our oldest, E., immediately suggested the Galápagos Islands. He’d done a report on marine iguanas, endemic to the Galápagos, in early elementary school and has wanted to see them in person since. We did a little research, and the decision was made. We would visit Quito, Ecuador and the Galápagos Islands. The trip didn’t go exactly as planned; let’s just say we were glad that we’d booked with a reputable travel agency instead of going it ourselves.

There are two ways to see the Galapágos Islands: a cruise around the islands or a land-based tour. We decided on a cruise for several reasons: they can get to the more remote islands; most of the travel between islands is done at night, so less time is wasted; and simply because we enjoy being on a boat. Land-based trips can be more affordable and relaxing, but include early wake-ups and hours on a boat or bus to get to each visiting site.  While a cruise ship can visit multiple visitor sites per day, a day trip can generally only visit one.  We knew visiting multiple sites per day would be busy, but we wanted an adventure and are not the types to rest on a beach for long.

In the end, we decided to book a cruise on La Pinta through Metropolitan Touring. La Pinta is a mid-size boat in the Galápagos (48 passengers max) with some interconnecting cabins, a great perk when you’re traveling with kids. We added in a few days in Quito at the beginning of the trip and a few at a hotel on the Galápagos Islands at the end.  

We were very happy with our choice of ship and with Metropolitan Touring. We’ll be covering life on La Pinta and many more details of our adventures in posts to come. Stay tuned!