Los Gemelos: Apparently Two Holes Count as an Attraction

Santa Cruz Island changes dramatically as you travel from one side to the other.

The drier northern side is classic volcanic Galápagos: exposed rock, scrubby vegetation, cacti and plants that seem to survive primarily out of spite.

Cross into the higher elevations toward the southern side and suddenly everything gets greener.

Way greener.

Moist air hits the highlands, forests appear, farms become possible and the landscape starts looking considerably less like nature forgot to finish rendering it.

It’s another reminder that volcanic islands are basically geological chaos with decent tourism marketing. I’ve seen the same planet-under-construction feeling around Gunnuhver in Iceland, where the ground steams, bubbles and generally behaves like something underneath it would prefer you leave.

Sitting right around this transition zone are Los Gemelos, or “The Twins.”

Two enormous depressions surrounded by lush vegetation.

Basically, Earth’s version of a matching set.

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DESTINATION: Los Gemelos

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THEY’RE NOT ACTUALLY VOLCANIC CRATERS

This is where Los Gemelos becomes considerably more interesting than simply saying: “Look. Holes.”

Despite looking like volcanic craters, Los Gemelos weren’t created by giant explosions blasting chunks of Santa Cruz into the Pacific.

They’re collapse pits.

Volcanic activity beneath Santa Cruz created underground cavities and weakened sections of the landscape. Eventually, the roofs above those spaces could no longer support themselves and collapsed.

Gravity did the rest.

If wandering around landscapes created by questionable underground geology is your thing, Iceland takes this concept and turns the insanity knob considerably higher. Places like Gunnuhver let you watch geothermal activity happening right in front of you, while the Galápagos version mostly shows you what happens after the ground has already lost the argument.

The result at Los Gemelos is a pair of enormous, steep-sided pits surrounded by the humid Scalesia forest of the Santa Cruz highlands.

So technically you’re standing beside evidence of the volcanic processes that literally built the Galápagos.

Which sounds considerably more impressive than “we stopped to look at two holes.”

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YOU CAN WALK AROUND THE HOLES

Exploring Los Gemelos is extremely straightforward.

There are short dirt and gravel trails through the forest and around portions of the crater rims, giving you different views down into the depressions.

And that’s basically it.

This is very much one of those “you’re already driving past it, so you might as well stop” destinations. Think Arc de Triomphe in Paris, except instead of looking at a giant monument surrounded by homicidal French traffic, you’re looking into a giant hole surrounded by trees.

Neither requires restructuring your vacation.

You cannot hike down into Los Gemelos.

There are no secret tunnels.

No underground visitor center.

No giant tortoise operating a gift shop at the bottom.

You walk around the edge, look down, say something intelligent like “holy shit, that’s a pretty big hole,” take some pictures and continue with your life.

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LOS GEMELOS UNCENSORED

I’m not going to pretend Los Gemelos deserves half a day of your Galápagos itinerary.

It doesn’t.

There isn’t much to explore because, and I cannot emphasize this enough, there are only two holes.

I’ve visited plenty of destinations where the interesting part is simply seeing something bizarre hiding in plain sight. Gold Hill Dam in Oregon is essentially an abandoned chunk of infrastructure that became an accidental graffiti gallery, while Centralia’s Graffiti Highway turned an abandoned road into something far more interesting than anyone originally intended.

Los Gemelos belongs in that same general category of travel: You’re nearby. It’s weird. Go look at it.

Once you’ve walked the short trails, looked into both depressions and sufficiently contemplated the geological instability occurring beneath your feet, you’ve pretty much completed Los Gemelos.

But that’s also why it’s worth stopping.

It’s quick, strange and requires almost no commitment.

And sometimes those are exactly the places worth pulling over for.