Last minute extended (1-2 mos) solo trip: Is this a good idea? Or even manageable?
TLDR: I’m an anxious and inexperienced traveler who loves privacy and isolation, considering leaving for Galapagos within a week(!) and with nothing planned or booked as of yet after dreaming about it for years. Feeling overwhelmed by the complex island-hopping itineraries and packing lists of gear I don’t even have. I want to stay a month or two. I don’t have the budget for opulence, but hoping for privacy and quiet. Looking for general advice re: how to enjoy the islands with my neuroses, and especially how to simplify and make manageable the preparations. Can you just show up, ease into it and play it by ear? Or would it be better to keep kicking the can and take the time to plan and prepare?
First of all: Why right away? The last 2 or 3 years have been especially tough and I’m struggling to reconnect with the joy in my life. I’ve heard that May is a wonderful time to visit for various reasons, maybe the best time. But the first half of May is always a challenging time for me to leave (in the last couple of weeks I’ve also been very busy caring for a sick family member while I might have been making arrangements). Now it’s almost June, so if I pull this off, I might get a week of May, a lot of June, maybe some July -getting well into dry season and peak season. Perhaps this is pushing it. If you had a month or two to spend in Galapagos, when would you go?
Like a lot of people who want to visit the Galápagos Islands, I’m crazy about animals and wildlife (penguins are a favorite). Nothing is more exciting to me honestly than seeing wildlife. My favorite way to spend a day off here is to take a train out of town to a nature preserve with some natural shoreline far from any road or parking area, exploring and finding a secluded spot to splash around in the water and take in the view. With penguins or sea lions, I’d be over the moon. I love walking around the city, thinking how all of this used to be nature. And I want to experience what the world was like before humans altered so much of the landscape. Galapagos seems like a door to a pristine past that doesn’t exist anywhere else anymore.
Why I haven’t been yet: I have a severe anxiety disorder, I’m kind of a loner, I operate at a slower pace and don’t do well with rigid schedules. I’m also nocturnal and eat all 3 (vegan) meals worth of food at 11pm every night. I live in the most crowded sq km of the USA and it has really worn down my resistance to crowds and noise. I think that living aboard a ship with > a dozen other people for however many activity-packed days, getting up at dawn and eating when they say to eat would be a painful adjustment. I might push myself to do it if I can do it affordably and last minute after easing myself in with the day trips. At least with a day trip, I can recharge the next day! I know Galapagos is not necessarily an easy or comfortable trip for everyone, and I’m not going into it to be pampered or anything, but I’ve found the prospect especially daunting given the group-based nature of getting out of the villages.
My vague plan is to spend the majority of the time on Isabela snorkeling alone and exploring the areas you can see without a naturalist by bike and on foot. Maybe take in some tours (idk which ones). Spend a much shorter time in San Cristobal and do a few day trips from there (idk which ones), and I guess a nominal amount of time on Santa Cruz. Maybe a 4-5 day western loop if affordable last minute and if I feel up to it after easing in and day tripping.
While I’m a confident swimmer in the bays and estuaries around here (I regularly swim in barely > 65F water for 45-90 min intervals in just a swimsuit!), I don’t have a lot of experience with the ocean and its dangerous currents and its sharks. That is also a concern, especially since I’m drawn to the most secluded and deserted spots for the quiet.
Packing-wise. Do I really need special outfits? Some number of long-sleeved, UV-whatevers I’ll never use again, rash guards? Can’t I just take summer/fall outfits I already have, my 2 bathing suits, my Tevas and Keens, and order some reef-safe sunscreen? What would be a sensible, minimal approach to packing without suffering unduly? Looking at others’ packing lists, I think the shopping alone would take me more time than I have and make me loopy besides.
I welcome any thoughts or advice from Galapagos veterans. If you’ve read this far, thank you so much!!