Los Tuneles Tour
In Isabela, Galapagos
- Last Updated: September 23, 2024
The Los Tuneles Tour in Isabela island (the tunnels) is the most incredible snorkeling tour you can do in the Galapagos Islands.
You will see so much wildlife you won’t believe it.
We saw on the surface blue-footed boobies, penguins, sea lions, marine iguanas and orange crabs and underwater reef sharks, turtles, a sea horse, a sea lion, an eagle ray, a stingray, an octopus, a lobster, and beautiful schools of fish.
Apart from the wildlife, the lava structures underwater are mind-blowing, you can dive through infinite tunnels and caves, and to top it we saw like in Angelita’s cenote in Mexico, an hydrogen sulfide cloud. What an experience!
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Los Tuneles Tour: General Details
This tour has to be done with a Naturalist guide and you need a boat to reach the destination. You can book the tour with an agency and they hire the guide.
- Highlights: Amazing wildlife spotting, both above and underwater. Sunken lava tunnels exploration.
- Duration: 6 hours.
- Starting Time: In the morning. The exact hour depends on your tour, ask when you reserve it.
- Price: 100-140$ USD.
- Agency/Guide: Coral Blanco Tour Operator.
- Food included: Lunch.
- Gear included: Snorkel kit (do ask if they have a wetsuit and a towel for you).
Los Tuneles Tour: Curiosities
In ancient eruptions, lava passed under the land forming tunnels that later collapsed and gave rise to these arches over the water.
These lava-rock formations may cease to exist in the near future, either because of rising sea levels or earthquakes.
It is the most beautiful snorkeling tour in the Galapagos Islands.
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How To Do the Los Tuneles Tour?
It’s relatively easy to do this tour.
You just need to book it with a tour operator, and on the day you scheduled it to go to Puerto Villamil passenger’s pier.
The boat will then take you all the way around the south coast of Isabela island until you reach Los Tuneles.
The order of the visited places on this tour might change between tour agencies. That’s a common thing in the Galapagos National Park in order to avoid crowds.
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What to Bring to the Los Tuneles Tour?
Clothing & Accessories:
- Tshirt: Breathable Tshirt (Tech or Merino), or a Lycra
- Jacket: Waterproof Jacket
- Shorts: Swimming Clothes
- Shoes: Hiking Shoes, and Flip Flops
- Hat: Cap
- Sunglasses
- Dry-fast Towel
- Earth Pak Waterproof Dry Bag
- Change of Clothes
Useful Extras:
- GoPro/Camera
- First-Aid Kit – Extra Sea Sickness Medication and Mosquito Repellent
- Sunscreen 50 SPF
- Food / Snacks
- Thermos or Water-filtering Bottle
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What Can i See on the Los Tuneles Tour?
When I was there I saw some penguins, many baby blacktip reef sharks, some adult ones, many turtles, eagle rays, stingrays, an octopus, a lobster, sea lions (both in the water and on the surface), a seahorse, marine iguanas, and blue-footed boobies and many different schools of fish.
For your own safety and for the animals, don’t touch any of the animals or corals as they are all living things and can get damaged if you do so.
My Experience on the Los Tuneles Tour
This was my fourth day on Isabela Island and I did this tour the day after doing the Wall of Tears Bike Ride and El Radar Viewpoint Hike.
Our tour started at 11 am. I went to the Puerto Villamil passenger’s pier (which is the one where the ferry dropped you when you arrived on the island), where the speedboat was waiting together with the entire group, the guide, and the captain.
Penguin and Sea Lion Spotting
After around 1:30-2 hours of the boat ride, we arrived at Los Tuneles.
The sea was quite calm that day so I didn’t feel much of a nuisance on the ride (it might have helped I was already used to scuba diving and to the ferries between the islands). But please do bring seasickness medicine if you tend to feel unwell.
Once we arrived we did a bit of snorkeling and we saw a nursery of black-tip reef sharks, many turtles, and some adult white-tip reef sharks.
Then we jumped back on the boat and went for some penguin spotting.
There we stayed for around 15 minutes taking photographs and watching the sea lions chilling on the rocks and the penguin wobbling around.
After that, we moved on to the coolest part of the tour. Exploring the underwater world of Los Tuneles.
One other cool thing about this tour is that our guide had with him a nice underwater camera and took great photos of the animals and of us. So if you don’t have a GoPro don’t worry cause you’ll be in good hands.
Also, all the animals are completely peaceful and just swim around you like you were one of them. Including the baby sharks.
Another tip I’ve for you is to follow the guide, you will probably find more animals if you’re with him.
Exploring a Fascinating Underwater World
After a quick boat ride, we arrived at the second snorkeling place of the tour and the coolest one probably in the entire Galápagos Archipelago.
The underwater world of Los Tuneles is absolutely incredible. We first started by looking for animals and as soon as we started we saw multiple turtles, a sea lion, and a stingray.
Some minutes later an eagle ray joined the party, we also found a den of an octopus and a lobster.
If that’s not incredible for a snorkeling trip then I don’t know what it is. It was definitely better than many of the scuba dives I did in my life!
After that our goal was to find a seahorse. The guide swam around and free-dived trying to find the one he knew it usually parked around and we ended up finding it, a very small one but it still counts. What an adorable animal. So beautiful to see all this in its natural habitat.
Then it was time for us to free-dive and explore all the underwater tunnels and caves around here. So awesome, really. We even found a hydrogen sulfide cloud!
The Surface of Los Tuneles and Bluee-Footed Boobies
As soon as we finished snorkeling we went back on the boat and parked it next to the surface. Then we went land exploring.
It was impressive to see how all the tunnels looked on the surface. Beautiful lava-rock formations covered in vegetation and opuntia cacti.
The rock formations sometimes created natural bridges where we stood for some time taking photos.
Our guide told us that this place might soon disappear do the climate change, sea levels rising, and earthquakes.
At the same time we were exploring the surface we found a blue-footed booby trying to call some female’s attention by doing some cute dance with its feet, opening its wings, and making noises. Funny-looking bird, Ahah.
After that booby, as we were going back to the boat we saw there was already a group photographing something and as we got closer we saw what it was. Two blue-footed boobies on one side and on the other a super cute baby sea lion next to another blue-footed booby.
And there we stood photographing the posers and enjoying some National Geographic scenes.
When we finally left for the boat we had a light lunch and started our ride back to Puerto Villamil.
On the way, we stopped in a small islet called “La Reunión” and saw many more blue-footed boobies.
What a beautiful way to finish this tour. 100% recommended.
And that’s about it after arriving at Puerto Villamil the Los Tuneles Tour was over.
What about you, have you already done the Los Tuneles Tour? Leave me a comment down here if you have and what was your opinion.
Thanks for reading through and I hope you have fun on this tour!
I’ll drop a couple of my other favourite photos from this tour down below, enjoy!
Photo Gallery
Los Tuneles Tour: Penguin and Sea Lion Spotting
Exploring a Fascinating Underwater World
The Surface of Los Tuneles and Blue-Footed Boobies
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