Galapagos

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Puerto Ayora and the Tortoise Sanctuary

We arrived on The Galapagos Islands after a very comfortable hour flight from Guayaquil. Completely over excited but not quite as noisy as the 50 school children who we'd shared the flight with we made our way with guide Miguel to our home for the next 8 days - The Treasure of Galapagos catamaran (TOG). The boat was out of this world and more spacious and luxurious than most of the hostels and hotels we'd stayed in to date. After a 3 course lunch on the TOG we headed out to the highlands to look at Giant Tortoises in the wild. I know they're called Giant Galapagos tortoises but I wasn't really prepared for the size of them. They really are huge! It was amazing to see them roaming around in the wild, especially when you realise that they were nearly extinct 30 years ago. A nearby farm had an old shell of a tortoise which Edd managed to climb into, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle style. You realise how big they are when a 6ft guy (5´11.5´´ to be precise!) fits into the shell with ease.

North Seymour and Bartolome

Frigate birds, Blue Footed Boobies, Land Iguanas and Marine Iguanas were the stars of the morning excursion to North Seymour. I had hoped to be able to see the male Frigate bird puffing out his big red neck, I never imagined that I would see trees full of them and be able to stand within touching distance of them. They were absolutely mesmerising, the hollow noise they make when they tap their beak against their big red necks was akin to a woodpecker and incredible to think that they made it all themselves! Land Iguanas sunbathed on the rocks and you had to be careful not to stand on them. Marine Iguanas baked themselves on the black lava rocks and mingled with the bright red Galapagos Crabs. With our minds blown and our camera full we returned to the TOG for breakfast.

The afternoon was filled with snorkelling around Bartolone Island. We snorkelled with penguins swimming alongside us which was magical and saw starfish and sea cucumbers (which I´d never knowingly seen before) along with a myriad of fish including Guineafowl Puffer Fish, Bumphead Parrotfish, Angelfish and Sergeant Majors.

For sunset we climbed to the top of Bartolome where we had spectacular 360° views of the surrounding Galapagos Islands and witnessed an amazing sunset. It was as fantastic as it sounds.

South Plaza and Santa Fe

Sealions were playing in the water where we had our dry landing on to South Plaza after breakfast. They posed for photos as if they were used to such demands and were quite happy for you to sit with them. They are such beautiful animals, it was hard to leave the docking area, but there was a whole island to explore! We found Land and Marine Iguanas roaming around the whole island and Tropic and Shearwater birds flying off the far side of the island searching for food. Round the corner was the sealion´s bachelor ´pad´. In typical male style they were all lounging around, grooming themselves from time to time and not doing very much! all they needed was lazy boy chairs and Sky Sports and they would be set for life!

More snorkelling in the afternoon - the highlight was the sea turtle that we swam with for a few minutes before it got a good look at Edd and swam very quickly away!

Santa Fe Island was run by Sea Lions and we had fun watching them waddle up and down the beach as well as lying next to them. We saw the most cute baby Sea Lions too, although one of them seemed to have lost his Mum and was calling out for her frantically. I hope he found her!

San Cristobal

We visited La Galapaguera on San Cristobal Island which is a tortoise sanctuary. It was great to see so many baby tortoises being reared in order to prevent the extinction more species (3 species from the Galapagos are already extinct). I really wanted to pop one in my pocket and bring it home, they were adorable...don´t worry I didn´t!

Espanola

Snorkelling in the morning followed by a visit to Punta Suarez on Espanola where we saw the amazing Waved Albatross. Their mating dance was entrancing and we watched them for as long as we could (we´re always the last off the islands, clinging to the scenes in front of us and savouring the performances that nature displays). Their dance is a sort of sword fight with their beaks, followed by much stretching of the wings and puffing of the chest. Then he calls to her and they start their sword fight all over again.

Floreana

Possibly the best snorkelling in the world. After a wander around the island gazing at pink flamingoes and watching Stingrays swimming in the surf we donned our snorkel gear yet again and embarked on a deep water snorkel around the 'Devils Crown´. We´d already seen a huge amount under water during our trip and I didn´t think it would get any better - how wrong I was! As we entered the water we saw a giant spotted ray, which just about rendered me breathless for a few minutes. It was magnificient. Far below us there were chocolate chip starfish (which look just like they are covered in chocolate chips!), bright Blue Starfish, Yellow Starfish, Pufferfish, turtles, Sea Horses and 3 Whitetip Reef Sharks including a baby one. Incredible!

Isabela

We were supposed to walk up to the volcano on Isabela, The largest of the Galapagos Islands, but the weather wasn´t good enough inland so we had to go for plan b, the Tortoise Sanctuary. This of course presented another opportunity for me to steal away with a baby tortoise, but I managed to refrain and settled for taking another ton of photos.
Later back on board we managed to convince the captain of the boat to let us have a go at driving it. I´m sure everyone felt a little more seasick than usual for the 20 minutes that Edd and I tried to keep the catamaran on course. Let me tell you it was difficult!

Our time on the Galapagos Islands has been magical, absolutely out of this world and I don´t think looking at wildlife will ever be the same again. We both feel extremely lucky to have been able to include a visit to these magical Islands in our trip, and as one last treat we are going to splash out on a dive and put our PADI skills to the test.

Diving: Roca Gordon

With VERY empty pockets we boarded Sub Aquas speed boat with 3 other divers. The journey lasted an hour or so and I just about managed to keep myself from getting seasickness on the hurrendously choppy sea. Gordon Rocks is renowned for being a fairly tricky dive site, with strong currents so it was with a slightly nervous feeling that we geared up for the first dive. It turned out that we were extremely lucky for many reasons, the currents were fairly tame and within minutes of being underwater we saw a huge school of Golden Cow Rays. It was one of those moments where you had to pinch yourself to check that you weren't dreaming! After 20 minutes we saw our first Hammerhead Shark. It was awesome. After lunch we ventured back into the sea for our second and final dive. From out of nowhere a school of 25-30 Hammerheads appeared in front of us. To see so many together at once was a sight to behold. I had to remind myself to breathe! Close up their eyes are even more fascinating than you might originally think. One rather large male came and swam between me and Edd and gave us the once over over, first with his left eye, then he turned to eye us up with his right. Completely breathtaking, and in hind sight blinking scary! All in all, pocket emptying but mind blowing.

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Photos

Bartolome Island
Walking to the top to watch the sunset