Cruising in the Galapagos Islands

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So after Isabela I went boating darling!

I went from Puerto Ayora to the airport to await the 15 other "Yolita" passengers from the planes. Was feeling a little apprehensive as all of the tourist boats which stopped in Isabela were full of spoilt American children with their equally spoilt parents - was hoping I wouldn´t have to endure 8 days with people like them!

Well I couldn´t have been more wrong. Everyone was around my age (I shared my cabin with a girl called Lexy from Scotland) except for 2 random Austrian guys called Max (a professor of history) and Erich (a priest) - they were on a tour of Ecuador celebrating Max´s 60th birthday!! But not to worry they fitted in perfectly and provided us with great entertainment for 8 days - their English wasn´t that good so they tried their luck in German - I can´t remember a word now so I just smiled and nodded a lot.

The boat tour went as follows:

Day 1 - Baltra to Las Bachas
Day 2 - Santa Fe
Day 3 - Isla Español (Punta Suarez and Gardner Bay)
Day 4 - Isla Floreana (Post Office Bay and Punta Cormorant)
Day 5 - Santa Cruz - Charles Darwin station and the highlands.
Day 6 - Isla Rabida and Sombrero Chino
Day 7 - Isla Bartolomé and Sullivan Bay
Day 8 - North Seymour - Baltra airport

Each day we made 2 landings to view the wildlife/ spend time on the beach and most days we went snorkelling twice.

We saw all kinds of wildlife:
Sea lions, blue footed boobies, frigate birds, albatrosses, land and marine iguanas, flamingos, pelicans, penguins, galapagos hawks, giant tortoises. Also, we were able to get very close to the animals. It was spectacular. I felt like I had walked straight into David Atenborough and his latest documentary.

When snorkelling too we saw so many things - they have beautiful fish here (some are the same as they had in the Red Sea in Egypt when I dived this year) I´m not sure how because the water is a lot colder. At one point I came face to face with a white tipped reef shark - it was no more than 2 metres away and his he was on my level very near the surface - I know these sharks don´t go for humans but he did look quite like Jaws anyway so I turned and did my best Duncan Goodhew and swam away as quickly as possible!!

The scenery also was spectacular - the highlights being the view from the top of Isla Bartolomé and the beach at XXXX - it was like something from a Carribean holiday brochure.

The 8 days were gone before I knew it and we had a big party on deck to celebrate which included a mandatory dance (no multiple dances) with Erich!! Very amusing as the boat was quite rocky - was fearing I would go overboard and take the Austrian priest with me!! He also came out in is best English with the line "I am very sorry Karen but I can´t marry you!!" - very amusing!!

After saying goodbye to everyone at the airport I came back to Puerto Ayora and after spending all 8 days trying not to get sea sick I was now land sick! The world was moving in a very strange way for a good 2 days afterwards!!

So for my last week and a half in Galapagos - what was I going to do with my time?? Answer: Go diving!!!

(Will put some pics up when I get back to the mainland).

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Comments

[claireandmarc]

woo hoooo!
like the bikini shot kazza! looking forward to meeting up and exchanging some crazy south american stories over beers, buenos aires is coolio! so see you somewhere around bolivia i guess! take care chicky love claire xxx