A dream come true

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- FOOD: Generally excellent food on the tour - breakfast of fruit, juice, herbal teas, BROWN toast, crispy bacon, ham, cheese, cornflakes, muesli and yogurt. Lunches and dinners served with soup first, always different. Nice deserts too.

- AREA: Heaven. WOOOOOOOW. 1st class yacht, volcanic islands, totally unspoilt and animals, birds and fish galore that are super friendly. Such a nice break from the general hassle of Quito and so nice to be looked after and have the decisions already made for you.

- PEOPLE: Nice tour mates although slightly irritating American family with 4 kids and a very moany NZ woman. Informative guide even though he wasn't a barrel of laughs.

- WEATHER: Quite a lot of wind and rain but occasional sun bathing sessions. Some choppy seas!


Thur 7th: My dream come true started with a delayed flight, unclear directions about where I had to go and a plane change at Guayaquil but I met a nice chatty girl on the plane and I was SOOOO excited about going to the Galapagos that nothing else mattered.

The Galapagos Islands are made up by 13 islands and are about 1,000km (3hr flight) away from Ecuador. Only 4 islands are inhabitated (3% of the whole Galapagos). Luckily, the islands became a national park in 1959 which not only stops further destruction of them but will also hopefully end the strange and often fatal mysteries that surround previous attempts at colonization.

I arrived at the airport and met a Brit couple Laura and Neil who like me, did not want to wear the huge badges given to us advertising our yacht. It was all very amusing and I was on a real high about being here and being on a first class yacht, The Monserrat. I'd been a bit unsure about who else would be on the yacht as even though it only holds 16 people, as it's first class I could imagine being with lots of newly weds and old couples. Laura and Neil were travelling around the world and my age so all started well.

Before we even got on the boat I saw sealions and herons up close - the excitement!

The boat was lovely - the poshest place I'd stayed in for a while. A spacious lounge with TV and games, a dining room and twin cabins with bathroom each. It was decked out in dark wood and had a sun lounge area on top. We had an excellent lunch of chicken, rice, asparagus and sprouts of all things. Then I met Danna my cabin mate, from Israel and also backpacking. The other passengers were another young, backpacking Brit couple, an older but still backpacking New Zealand couple, a mother and backpacking daughter from Switzerland and an American family - 4 kids but 3 were late teens so not as daunting as when we'd first heard about them.

We went on our first walk on San Cristobal Island and felt the first drops of many raindrops to fall over the 8 days. BUT - we saw colourful crabs, marine iguanas (the only ones in the world - signs of evolution loud and clear here), sealions, herons, lizards and bright yellow birds. I could not believe how friendly all these animals were - they were just chilling and letting us go SO close without being scared.
The sealions just burping and farting away and just about managed to lift their heads if anyone went within 5cm of them. We also saw Darwin finches and frigates which are black with a bright red neck which bulges out when they are impressing the lady frigates (we didn't see this in action sadly).
As this is an inhabited island, we had an hour to spend in town. I had no intentions of using the internet during this 8 day trip but Laura and Neil informed me of the bombings in London so I was straight on there. Not a nice come down to my high.

Back on the yacht, we first had to wash off our shoes thoroughly as it would be damaging to the ecosystem to transfer soil from island to island. I had a cold shower (not by choice) and then we had cocktails and met the crew in their official uniform before having a dinner of soup followed by fish.

Bed time seems to be quite early for most and once the boat started to move, bed was the best place really. I could smell the fuel in my room and the boat was a bit rocky but I managed to sleep well, even with the bombings on my mind.


Fri 8th: Breakfast was at 7am but was FAB - fruit, juice, herbal teas, BROWN toast, crispy bacon, ham, cheese, cornflakes, muesli and yogurt. Needless to say, I stuffed myself. Pelicans had flown up and were sat on the dinghies which was very cute.

We went for a walk on Espanola Island and saw crabs, sealions, a pack of iguanas crawling all over each other and the highlight was blue-footed boobies. SOOO cute and it's the season for nesting and babies which added to the glory. I just could not believe how close the mothers let us go while they were sitting on their nests - within a hand stretch! They even nest in the middle of the walkway so you have to look constantly so as not to tread on them! How trusting they are. The babies are white and fluffy but sadly, lots seemed quite weak and we saw some dead ones.
We also saw Nazca boobies which are black and white do their mating dance where they lift their feet up and down and open and close their wings and beaks. We saw massive albatrosses and Galapagos hawks. The island is beautiful but the best feature was a blow hole within the rocks where the sea shoots up really high.
The American family were starting to annoy me but that plus the rain was not enough to stop my constant thrill at seeing the animals SO close.

In the afternoon we got a boat to Gardner Bay which was a paradise beach but not so much in the rain! Our attempts at sunbathing in between the rain clouds were distracted by little Darwin finches who came right up to us to play (or rather steal our food!). We walked along the beach and saw more Sally lightfoot crabs who are bright red and orange and really stand out against the dark rocks.
The highlight was seeing sea turtles who are about 1 metre long swim around in the clear sea near the surface and near to us. I went snorkelling for only about 10 minutes as it was so cold and saw a couple of schools of fish which was amazing enough for me.

I rushed to the shower on our return and was rewarded with a hot one. Hooray. Our big night in after dinner was playing 'Hearts' and drinking rum but everyone was in bed by 10pm!


Sat 9th: Even though it's peak season now, it's also choppy season. The boat was rocking all night which was actually quite comforting except for something (wardrobe doors?) making a noise all night. Yet again, I had lots of breakfast before visiting Santa Fe island.

We saw more sea iguanas and also land ones which are a different colour. We saw more lizards and some Galapagos mocking birds. The sealions were playing loads when we arrived - on land and in the sea where they look like dolphins as they swim. They came right up to us and were sniffing our feet and wanting to play! Cute but my god they stink.
We saw more boobies and watched the herons dive into the sea to catch fish. The landscape here was quite strange with trees that look dead and lots of cacti. We saw pelicans nesting and then went snorkelling.
There were schools of yellow and blue fish, a sting ray, lots of tiny fish, a sea turtle which swam so close below us and the highlight were sealions who sat on the rocks checking us out before diving in and zooming up to us before turning away at the last minute. They also liked to bite our flippers!

The 3 hour boat journey to the Plaza Islands was spent on the sun deck 'sun' bathing. I actually nearly burnt in amongst the rain and wind! On these islands we saw strange seagulls with red rims around their eyes (too many late nights?) and went in search of the 'loser' sealions.
Amongst the group of 30 odd sealions, there is only ONE male - funnily enough, the dominant one who has fought off all the other males to have this little harem. However, the price he has to pay for this privalege is no sleep or food for 20 - 30 days - these ladies need entertaining after all. After this amount of time, the other males decide he must be knackered and fight to become the next sex god. The ones that lose slope off in shame to the other side of the island where they climb onto a nice cosy rock and eat and sleep all they like.
Which is the better life I ask myself?! We waited for ages to see the losers who have to swim around the edge of the island and climb up the steep rock edge before they can relax, but didn't see any. Of course, the minute we walked away, up they came.

The excitement of the day was just too much for me though and after eating only half a bowl of soup for dinner, I went to bed at 7.30pm and was up every hour being sick. Not nice when the boat was still, a thousand times worse when the boat was moving - quite a task to make it to the loo each time. Poor Danna - not the best way to spend her last night on the boat.


Sun 10th: After skipping breakfast, I risked the half hour walk we had to see more sealions, iguanas and baby boobies. We saw a TINY seal lion - only 1 week old - ahhhh. Well worth getting up for.
I skipped lunch as well to sleep and then risked going onto San Cristobal Island as for some of the passengers, it was the end of their trip. It was the strangest feeling being on land - even though the islands are land. I suppose they're not flat land like this was and I felt very weird. Everything was swimming around a bit and I couldn't walk properly. Yuck - went back to the boat to sleep more and missed the afternoon walk to the lagunas.
A wise move as the bit of toast I'd attempted earlier decided to move on up (and the lakes weren't all that great apparently although they may just have told me that to make me feel better).
After on and off semi delirious sleep all afternoon (at least I had the cabin to myself now Danna had left), I felt a bit better and managed to eat some dinner - even with the American mother sitting with us. Can't help but like her even though her incredibly narrow minded Morman views should be kept to herself.


Mon 11th: After being a bit feverish all night I woke feeling so much better. Think it was just a 24hr bug rather than sea sickness or the smell of the fumes (which they fixed so I didn't have to sleep with the duvet over my head to block it out).
Good thing I was feeling better as Floreana Island was spectacular. We saw incredibly bright pink pelicans and before we'd even gone snorkelling some baby sharks swimming in the shallows and stingrays that came a bit too close for comfort.
The snorkelling was just as good as before - so many schools of blue and yellow fish, starfish, big fish, colourful fish (my knowledge of types of fish is extensive as you can see). The current was really strong so I'm not quite sure how the American family with their very limited experience of diving have managed to do a dive most days.

After chilling on the sundeck for a few hours, we went to Post Office Bay. Pirates set up this post box to leave mail which if other pirates were going that way, hand delivered it. This idea is still going today and so I wrote a postcard to Mum and Dad and put it in without stamping it. I'm sure enough Brits visit this island that it will get back to them quicker than if I sent it normal post! I picked up 2 letters with Auckland addresses to deliver when I'm in New Zealand.
It was vaguely sunny, so we had a while to relax on the beach before our big night out in the town of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island - party capital of the Galapagos - we found about 3 bars. Our big party night ended at 10pm which was when we'd been told to be back but it was nice to get onto land and into a bar.


Tue 12th: A very decent night's sleep was had as the boat was docked for once all night. However, the lager and caipirinha's from the night before reminded me that perhaps my stomach hadn't fully recovered yet. Didn't feel great but there was NO WAY I was missing out on the main reason I wanted to come to the Galapagos - the giant tortoises.

We first visited the Charles Darwin station to see Galapagos land tortoises in captavation. This has to be the case as pirates and other settlers in the past have slaughtered thousands of tortoises so they need to be bred. We saw huge tortoises from different islands and lots of little babies - SOOOO cute!!! I want my tortoises at home to have babies as cute as these. There were no extra tips though on how to successfully hatch the eggs.

We visited poor old Lonesome George who was the only tortoise on Pinta Island for many years after all the others were slaughtered. The poor old thing is so used to his independent life that even with 2 very attractive female tortoises in the pen with him (the closest species to his they can find), he's still not in the least bit interested in anything but plodding around so it seems his species will become extinct. I guess at 115 years old he'd rather eat some grass and have a kip.
We then went to see some even bigger tortoises - up to 170 kilos heavy - it takes 8 men to lift one. They were suprisingly active for their size but it was strange to hear the usual tortoise noises when they eat and walk magnified by 100!

I had a little walk around the town and then returned to the boat to sleep off the rest of my illness. Then by bus we visited higher land where we saw tortoises in their natural habitat... wallowing in mud and eating avocado, orange, passion fruit and guava - not a bad life.

On the same land was a long lava tunnel where we had to eventually crawl on hands and knees to get through it.


Wed 13th: We had to get up even earlier than 7am today but after 2 days of no cereal, they'd bought more so managed a smile.
The morning consisted of a walk on Bartolome Island to see the very colourful lava formations. Then into dinghies to spot the Galapagos penguins - which we did playing in the water and on the rocks. Ahhh, cute little things. The snorkel we then did was by far the best - even more fish and the penguins swooped past us within reaching distance! They were very speedy - I think they were scared of the American family trying to touch them. Very cool though. On a walk to the other side of the beach we spotted 5 or so white tipped sharks swimming in the shallows - even closer than before - a bit scarily close actually.

We had to kill half an hour or so on Baltra Island while the boat was being refuelled but had some entertainment in the form of a sea lion who had chosen the public bench to lie fully stretched on for his afternoon's sunbathing.

Then in the afternoon on North Seymour Island I saw another sight I'd been waiting for - frigate birds in action! Female frigates were nesting, we saw baby frigates and also males craving attention with their MASSIVE red bulged necks!!! I can't believe they can actually breathe with those big pouches almost the same size as them hanging off their throats!
Another highlight was seeing a baby booby hassling it's Mum for food. She was desperately trying to regurgitate for her screaming, impatient baby but with no luck. I think the baby must've been at terrible tantrum stage as it decided to peck at it's Mum for food!

The final highlight of the day and the trip was hassling Edwards, our guide, to let us snorkel one more time. The sea was so cold but we got to play with 3 inquisitive sea lions loads, saw the hugest fish we'd seen yet, rainbow coloured ones and see throughish flourescent ones (as you can see I've now read up on my fish types).

The food highlight was a bbq with sausage, chicken and STEAK and a big cake with "Adios Amigos" iced on it - plus goodbye cocktails bless 'em.


Thur 14th: So onto the final day - sadly not the best one. The sea had been very choppy in the night so none of us had slept too well, there was much chaos and confusion over who was going to the airport and when, Edwards seemed to give up guiding us, the NZ woman was as moany as ever and after being left stranded at the interpretation centre that only used up about an hour of time, we were left hanging out at the airport for hours.

Some relieved goodbyes and some sad goodbyes later and the mad dash to get back into Bolivia started. I flew from the Galaps to Quito, ran to the international terminal to only just get my flight to Lima and then changed for the flight to La Paz. A day of flying makes a change to a day of bus journeys I guess - although I only got fed on the first flight so it was back to my staple crisp diet after that. VERY nice to see the mountain peaks show above the layer of clouds though.

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