What I Packed for a Magical Week of Sea, Sun, and Wildlife-Watching in the Galápagos Islands

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Brandon Chia, 31, a nurse in the South Island of New Zealand. Chia moved from Singapore to New Zealand in 2022. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

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This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nic Lim , an author from New Zealand who moved to Japan for four years to work as an English teacher. It has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified his employment history.

I was lying wide awake on a hospital bed in Ecuador, hoping for sleep yet fearful that if I dozed off, I'd miss something crucial.

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Even six or seven years ago, the whispers about Lanzarote still came with an element of implied surprise. “It's actually really cool,” I remember a photographer friend telling me before I went with my partner in 2018. We ended up staying among the palms and black-ash vineyards at Finca Malvasia, part of the first generation of cool boutique hotels, and falling for the island's big skies, duotone volcanic landscapes, and singular brand of nature-facing modernism.

On an early June morning off the southeastern shore of Siargao, pro surfer Ikit Agudo skillfully maneuvers her board through the waves. This teardrop-shaped island in the Philippines, long a domestic secret but on the verge of becoming a hot spot, has always been home for Agudo, who was born and raised on Siargao, in a community she describes as uniformly friendly and thoughtful. During the morning we spend out on the sea, I see friends and strangers saluting one another on the lineups. Experts guide amateurs; fellow surfers extend invitations to break bread together after the session. All paddle out together to face the ocean as one.

The Galápagos Islands, although remote, attract a lot of tourists — more 20,000 every year, to be precise. While it’s easy for those tourists to reach the island of San Cristóbal or Baltra thanks to daily commercial flights from the Ecuadorian mainland, getting around the rest of the archipelago is a different story.

Whale!” Mark shouted at breakfast. The rest of us passengers, the ship’s captain, and the naturalist guides stood up at once. We lifted the binoculars strapped around our necks and scanned the horizon from the sundeck. The Bolivar Channel is the best place to see whales around the Galápagos Islands, and eagle-eyed Mark, with his patience and determination, had spotted a splash nearby. A fin appeared and we all gasped and whooped.

As an anxious traveler, I arm myself with a toolbox of aids — noise-canceling headphones, meditation apps, and essential oils — to make airports bearable. I fork out for lounge access, too, just so I have a safe corner to retreat and distance myself from crowds of people. But animal therapy at an airport has never occurred to me. It sounds like an oxymoron.