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Well, I have now had four nights at sea. It isn't getting any easier but I am still here and still alive! One kind lady on our trip took pity on me and I am now sleeping in a cabin on the upper deck which I think is definitely helping. Anyway, enough of sailing, let me tell you about the islands.... We have visited Santa Fe and marvelled at the land iguana's, cacti and Galapagos Mocking Birds; been snorkelling and seen sea turtles and lots of colourful fishes. We had a short trip to Santa Plaza and then sailed onto Santa Cruz. It was amazing to visit the Charles Darwin Research Centre and marvel at teh successful tortoise breeding programme varying in age from babies to over 100 years old. In the male encloser it was really funny as we saw one was a big bully who instead of going round his friend decided to climb up and over him. We also saw lonesome George. Aaah. He is the only one of his kind left on earth and time is running out to find him a suitable mate. He is with two females who are the closest match to his species
but he hasn't been interested in either of them for the last 30 years.
In the afternoon we went to see some of the Giant tortoises in the wild. Wowie! They were enormous and I did have an urge to try and sit on one but thought better of it! When the islands were first discovered the sailors slaughtered hundreds of thousands of the tortoises to use their oil and to eat them. A tortoise could keep for up to a year on a boat without food and water. Very sad that we have killed so many of them and now many of species are fighting for survival.
In the evening we headed to our guide Rafa's house which was a bar to watch some DVD's that the BBC made on the Galapagos Islands in 2006. It was really cool to watch them and think we have seen that bird/mammal/been to that island and so on. Dad and I are very lucky to be enjoying such a wonderful experience.
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