Highlands Tour
In San Cristobal, Galapagos
- Last Updated: December 9, 2024
The Highlands Tour in San Cristobal is the most complete tour you can do on this Island if you want to explore its interior.
You will cross the entire island and visit the Laguna El Junco, which is a volcanic crater lake, the Tortoise Reserve “La Galapaguera” and to conclude swim on the beautiful Puerto Chino beach.
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Highlands Tour: General Details
This tour can be done with any taxi on the island. If you go by taxi anywhere they will ask you if you have already done the tour while on the island. So you have plenty of taxis to choose from.
I imagine you can also book a tour with a Naturalist guide and pay a little more or go by yourself with a bicycle but it’s pretty much going up and down the hills of San Cristobal and it will take you ages to reach Puerto Chino.
- Tour Highlights: Crater Lake “Laguna El Junco”, Tortoise Reserve “La Galapaguera”, Puerto Chino beach.
- Tour Duration: Around 4-5 hours of duration (7 hours if you take the normal tour with a lunch break)
- Tour Price: Around 60-70$ USD per taxi.
- Tour Agency/Guide: Any taxi driver around town.
How To Do the Highlands Tour?
You just have to call for a taxi on the street and ask them how much they charge for the tour or ask in your hotel/hostel if they know someone that they recommend.
If you share it with some friends it’s relatively more affordable and I would suggest you the second option and book it with a Naturalist guide or someone with a bit more knowledge than the taxi drivers (it can go up to 100$ USD in that case).
We did it with a local friend of a contact of mine and it was totally worth it. They are obliged to close the beaches at 18h so you have to be out of the gate by that time and skip the sunset but luckily our guide gave us a bit more freedom and allowed us to stay longer and enjoy the sunset.
He also gave us a lot of information regarding the tortoises and the El Junco crater and he entered with us to all these places (things that in theory the taxi drivers can’t do).
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What to Bring to the Highlands Tour?
Clothing & Accessories:
- Tshirt: Breathable Tshirt (Tech or Merino), or a Lycra
- Jacket: Waterproof Jacket
- Shorts: Shorts, and 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
- Snorkeling Gear: Mask, Tube, and Fins
- Mosquito Repellent: The beaches on the Galapagos islands, especially at sunset, have a lot of mosquitos and usually also horseflies or “Tabanos” as they are called in Spanish and they are silent and leave you with a huge unpleasant swollen bite.
- Sunscreen +50 SPF
- Food / Snacks
- Thermos or Water-filtering Bottle
- First-Aid Kit
Check out my complete guide on What’s in My Backpack – From photography gear, and clothing for Hiking, Mountaineering, Scuba Diving, Rainforest, and City-Street Photography.
My Experience on the Highlands Tour
This was my second day on San Cristobal Island and I did this tour together with two other friends of mine after I did the Cerro Tijeretas and Playa Baquerizo hike.
To start the tour we talked with my contact and he called his friend to do the tour. As it was running late it shouldn’t be possible to do all three highlights of the normal tour but we managed to do them and even take a lot of photographs around all three spots.
Visiting the Crater Lake "El Junco"
After picking us up we drove around 20 minutes and parked at the parking area straight at the base of the wooden staircase that takes you up to the crater.
We then climbed for around 10 minutes and reached the rim of the crater of the extinct volcano.
Once we arrived we couldn’t see anything as it seemed we were on a different island, like in Hawaii or Azores. The vegetation was very lush and there was a lot of fog at the top.
After around 5 minutes the fog went away, thus revealing the beautiful lagoon that formed itself inside the crater. It’s the only freshwater source in the Galápagos Islands.
El Junco Lagoon is therefore home to many different types of birds, including the frigatebirds (tijeretas) that feed on its waters.
Visiting the Tortoise Reserve "La Galapaguera"
To enter “La Galapaguera” you don’t have to pay anything, there is a guard at the entrance and you just enter.
There is a small dirt path that you have to walk and after around 2-3 minutes you see already the first giant tortoises.
I recommend you do this tour in the morning or at lunchtime to see the turtles eating and moving around.
When we went mostly all of the giant ones were already sleeping and not moving.
After that, you see the breeding place for the baby ones and the juvenile area which is quite impressive.
The turtle eggs are brought here at birth to significantly increase their chance of survival and not being eaten by predators.
Another interesting fact, one of the main differences between turtles and tortoises is that tortoises are purely land animals and can’t swim, and another curious fact is that there are two main types of giant tortoises:
The dome ones, with a curvy round shell, exist usually in areas where food is vast, and the saddle ones whose shell resembles a saddle and their neck extend a lot vertically in order to reach fruits in places where there isn’t so much food available at ground level.
Visiting Puerto Chino Beach
And to conclude our tour we went at sunset time to Puerto Chino beach.
We didn’t have much time before 6 pm (the time when the beach officially closes, yes, that’s a thing in the Galapagos, and actually 6 pm is quite good compared to Tortuga Bay in Santa Cruz Island or any other island which closes at 5:30 pm) so we could only choose either to go to the viewpoint at the east side of the beach or go swimming.
I wanted to take some photos so I went to the viewpoint but the water was very tempting.
The problem with the sunset is that the beach gets full of mosquitos so bring repellant.
On our way back we found the gate already closed and it almost gave us a problem (for disrespecting the national park’s rules our guide was gonna need to pay a huge fine), luckily our guide knew the guard on that night’s shift and his colleagues had forgotten about him there so we gave him a ride almost until Puerto Baquerizo Moreno and he opened the gate for us.
And that’s about it after Puerto Chino we went back to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno and the Highlands Tour in San Cristobal was over.
What about you, have you already done the Highlands Tour in San Cristobal Island? Leave me a comment down here if you did and after you did it with your impression.
Thanks for reading through and I hope you have fun on this tour!
I’ll drop a couple of my other favorite photos from this hike down below, enjoy!
Photo Gallery
Highlands Tour: Visiting the Crater Lake "El Junco"
Visiting the Tortoise Reserve "La Galapaguera"
Visting Puerto Chino Beach
7 thoughts on “Highlands Tour in San Cristobal”
Dear João,
My brother and I are very interested in the San Cristobal Highland Tour you described. We would like to spend 7 hours on December 27, 2023 to tour the highland. Do you take reservation for this tour? If you don’t, can you recommend a reliable and experienced driver who can take us to the tour? We will arrive in San Cristobal on December 25.
Thank you!
Lei Liu
Hi Lei Liu,
I don’t take reservations unfortunately as i’m just a blogger and was also as a tourist in the Galapagos but i do have two numbers of taxi drivers that can take you on the tour, one is Miriam: +593982556652, and the other is Omar: +593939345734
If they don’t have those numbers anymore i would say you really can’t go wrong in San Cristobal, everybody is so nice and helpful, and all the taxi drivers wanted to do this tour with the tourists. If you take a taxi to La Loberia Beach they will always ask if you want to do the Highlands Tour the next day with them.
For any doubts feel free to ask, i’m also reachable in Instagram if it’s easier for you: @the.portuguese.traveler
Have fun!
João
your contact for the naturalist guide to El Junco please
Hey Donna Mena,
I don’t have the number of the guide just of my friend who called him, you can try to text him and see if he can book you the same guy. Here’s his number he’s called Whitman and he’s the guy to book tours within San Cristobal if you need to: +593 99 477 1274
Have fun,
João
Hola! I see you did both the Highlands Tour and the hike to Cerro Tijeretas and Playa Baquerizo on the same day. I want to do the same. Would you recommend doing the Highlands first (what time is a good?) and then the hike/snorkeling afterwards?
Thank you!
Hola Nicole! I think that’s also a nice option and you can ask the taxi to leave you at the Interpretation Centre so you don’t have to walk there to start the hike. It really depends on your choice. Usually there are more chances to rain in the afternoon/evening but as the weather can be uncertain it’s really up to luck almost. I got rain on my way back from the Playa Baquerizo, at lunch time, and actually swam at the Tijeretas Bay with rain cause the sun was so strong during the hike that even with rain it was fun to swim. The sea lions were there both times i visited with and without rain. Whichever choice you make you will have good fun! Enjoy it for me eheh.
Thank you so much!