12 Jun 2025
The tuneles tour is a not-to-be-missed day on Isabela. The boat ride is about an hour, but we saw manta rays jumping out of the ocean all around us and stopped at Union Rock to see the Nasca boobies (endemic to Galapagos) on the way. At the tunnels, e had three activities: a short hike on land, a zodiac ride around and through the tunnels, and snorkeling. We saw blue footed boobies, brown noddies, lava herons, yellow warblers, of course the Nasca boobies, Galapagos shearwaters, and a few Galapagos penguins! In the water we saw white tipped reef sharks, GIANT turtles, and so many fish. It was amazing to also go into the tunnels and experience the lava formations up close. My only warning to future travelers is that to get to tunnels you have to cross the breaking waves going in and coming out. We hit a huge wave and everything in the boat was literally airborne, including us! Which was kind of cool except I flew out of my chair and landed on the floor hard and hurt my back. I’ll recover of course but because of this I wouldn’t recommend the tour to people with back problems or pregnant people. And maybe everyone else just prepare for some big bumps.