Blogs from Galápagos, Ecuador, South America - page 90

A 5.30 taxi followed by 2 planes, a bus, a ferry, another bus and then a 2 hour speed boat ride (actually only 1 and a half hours as it really was a SPEED boat) and we arrive in Isabella Island. Exactly how you would imagine a south Pacific island - tranquil, sunny, white sand beaches, casual lifestyle, and then you see flamingos, hundreds upon hundreds of marine iguanas, grey feathered pelicans and you realize you are a lot further north than Tonga, Fiji or Samoa. Galalpagos Islands. Having not been at sea level for quite some time and not near any coastline, the obvious thing to do when you arrive is to head for the water. A beautiful 22 degrees, very refreshing and with company, not the 2 legged local kid kind but the local ... read more

Hi everyone at home or wherever you may be reading. A special hello to anyone reading this who was on board the Aneglique last week. Don´t forget to leave a message to say hi. My original plan for this part of the trip had been to turn up in Ecuador and see if I could get a last minute deal to travel around the Galapagos Islands. Then I started reading Charles Darwin´s account of the voyage of the Beagle around South America in the 1830s. I felt suitably inspired and knew I would be gutted if there were no last minute deals so, after a few dodgy money transfers and phone calls from central America to Ecuador, I had booked a 7 day epic voyage around the islands. The Galapagos Islands are located around 600 miles ... read more

We flew to the Galapagos without any plans or reservations. By far the best travel agency is Moonrise and if you are looking for a cruise, that's the place to go. We were offered quite a few boats varying in price range that were to leave in the next couple of days. The first day we went to the Charles Darwin Research Center. The following day we booked 3 day trip to Isabella Island and stayed there for two nights. We rode on horseback up to Volcan Chico which was fun because they weren't trail horses and you can get them to gallop. I had never ridden a horse before and Tiffany had years of childhood sleep-away horse camp under her belt. It was a workout. I ended up with a lot of bruises. Later we ... read more

We have just arrived back in Quito after 5 incredible days on board the Lobo de Mar 3 (sea lion) cruising around the Galapagos Islands. First day off the boat we saw giant tortoises at the Charles Darwin Research Centre - unfortunately we didn´t get get to see them in the wild but at the centre we got to go right up to them in their enclosures - it was out of this world. After the first day we pretty much went snokelling and walking on each of the islands everyday and everytime we saw something new. The highlights were swimming with white tipped reef sharks, penguins, sea lions, sting rays and eagle rays and huge turtles. On land, we saw land and marine iguanas (some of them were huge), sealions and their young, flamingoes, blue ... read more

Nach unserer kurzen Routenaenderung sind wir also bereits am 1. Dezember von Guayaquil auf die Galapagosinseln geflogen, anstatt noch das equadorianische Kuestengebiet zu besuchen. In Baltra (kleine Galapagosinsel mit Flughafen) angekommen, stand uns eine 3 stuendige Horrorbootsfahrt bevor, welche uns in einem kleinen Motorboot durch extremen Wellengang auf die Insel Isabela brachte. Wir sassen dummerweise vorne im Boot und kriegten somit die meisten Schlaege ab. Nun, wir genossen also noch 4 ruhige Tage auf dieser Insel, die noch sehr verschlafen und wenig touristisch wirkt. Die Leute lieben die vereinzelten Touristen geradezu, die sich hierher verirren, gruessen jedesmal ganz freundlich und unterhalten sich gerne mit uns. Per Zufall konnten wir fuer 2 Tage in einem schoenen Strandhaus unterkommen, das uns eine ausgewanderte Schweizerin zu einem guenstigen Preis zur Verfuegung stell... read more