Locked down on the Galápagos Islands

Scottish traveller Ian was on a once-in-a-lifetime South America adventure when the COVID-19 lockdown began. Here, he shares his four-month lockdown experience on Isabela Island...

- Ian Melvin

My South American trip started in Buenos Aires and went down to Ushuaia, across to Uruguay and then back to Argentina, to Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. I was traveling for about four months before making it up to Ecuador. As I arrived, I started to see more news about coronavirus reaching South America.

People were saying, ‘Maybe you won’t get to go to the Galápagos?’ I remember thinking, ‘Oh no, that’s the one place I wanted to go the most.’ At the airport to the Galápagos, they were already screening for the virus, but I made it to Santa Cruz safe and sound.

Things were normal for the first couple of days. I could do the things that I wanted to, like scuba diving with the hammerheads – around 100 of them in total. But there were a lot of rumours going around about what was happening.

When I reached Isabela Island, it was 17 March, and they told me that the island was being closed. I had arrived here on the very last ferry.

Of all the places that I’ve visited on this trip, this was the best possible place to be during the lockdown. It’s a very peaceful island, with about 2,500 people. I’d arranged to stay with a host family and they were happy for me to stay as long as I needed.

And, why would I leave here? I registered with the embassy and told them where I was, and my family at home in Scotland said, ‘Fair enough, you’ve probably made the right decision.’