Going to Galapagos...

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After looking foward to this trip for so long we were finally off to the Galapagos Islands. The flight from Quito was about 3 hours and the first half hour is over the Andes so it's spectacular. As soon as we landed the heat was unreal. We got picked up, met our guide and were off to see our "pirate ship" home for the next 5 days. As we waited on the dock for the dingy to collect us a huge bull sea lion climbed up a sat down beside us.

After meeting the crew and the other passengers we were off touring for the evening. Within a few hours of being there, we were swimming with sea lions, turtles and sting rays and we'd seen lots of the famous marine Igunas.

Our boat, "The Sulidae" was a 108 year old refurbished sail boat and looked class. We had a group of 8, ourselves, an Australian couple, 3 germans and an older Argentinian couple. We all got on well and everybody was fairly chilled out, which is nice when your stuck on a boat together for a week.

Our guide Raul was absolutely brilliant, he was a local marine biologist and he really knew his stuff. He was seriously enthusiastic and wanted us to see as much as possible. He was big into looking after the Islands and had a serious problem with the big expensive boats that tour around the Galapagos. Every day was packed with trips around or on the different Islands, snorkelling trips or trips in the dingy to get close to some of the smaller islands.

The snorkelling was amazing and on the second day a reef sharked swam right pasted us. I have to say I nearly crapped myself but after that we got used to seeing them. On other trips we swam with sea lions, penguins, turtles and lots of tropical fish. On the islands, we saw the enormous land tortoises living in the wild which was really savage and visited some of the spectacular volcanic landscapes.

In the evening sitting on the deck we would see lots of turtles and as it got dark sealions would come in to hunt fish, hiding under the boat. One night, before we set off sailing, we sat on deck watching sharks swimming around the boat, it was amazing.

Every night we would motor to the next island and we would have a beer on deck before heading off to our cabins. Sometimes we could see a green glow around the boat as we moved through plankton causing it to light up.

Our last day on the boat was Fran's birthday, and the cook whipped up a savage birthday cake, but sadly it was time for us to say goodbye and leave the boat. We still had a few days on Santa Cruz island which we spent on the beautiful beaches, taking a few snorkelling trips and going to one of the best bomb diving spots ever. What an amazing trip, we were so glad we decided to break the budget-it was expensive but was worth it!

For anyone considering a trip to the Galapagos Islands, I'd strongly recommend taking a trip on the Sulidae it was a great boat, small group and a fantastic crew and guide.

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Photos

Me and a huge tortoise.
This big guy was probably at least 130 years old, but more than likely older!

Turtlehead
Took ages to gut and clean out this one before we could take this shot.

Terry with some marine iguanas
They don't do much except lay about in the sun, nodding their heads, spitting out salt and then pop out to sea for some lunch later on..

Post-office bay..
A pirate tradition of leaving letters in a barrel, nowadays you leave your mail here and someone else picks it up and hand delivers it you... unfortunately there were no letters for Ireland for us to take home!