Ecuador December 2009

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Ecuador - Galápagos: A Dream Come True

When I was very young and first heard of the Galápagos and Charles Darwin, I was absolutely enthralled and never thought I would ever get the chance to actually see these enchanted islands. An extremely last minute booking, just-in-time DHL delivery of scuba equipment, 2 flights from Panama City and we were finally there.

Highlights

- Wandering past birds and animals that have no fear of humans - how many other places on earth can you find this?
- Playful sea lions sunbathing on fishing boats and following us underwater as we dive
- Schooling Hammerheads - one of the few places where you can observe them
- Delightful schools of dolphins that surround you underwater, making you forget you need to surface
- Blue-footed Booby birds with their funny mating rutuals
- Valerie's 100th dive (no, she did not go naked - much too cold in the Galápagos currents!)

Lowlights

- Steve almost losing a fin to a silky shark
- Dive masters asking for extortionate tips
- Finding out Lonesome George is the last of his kind. He's a Pinta Island Tortoise, a sub-species of the Galápagos Giant tortoise. There are ongoing efforts to mate him with other sub-species or to clone him, so far unsuccessfully. And at around 100 years of age, time may be running out!

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