Galapagos Islands

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The Galapagos Islands are absolutely one of the highlights of our trip. We had a fantastic time and I can´t think think of a better way to celebrate my birthday (even though they are starting to get depressing!).

Because of our flight dramas getting to South America we missed the first day of our trip and had to pay US$500 to take a speedboat to catch up to our boat. We only missed one day though so it was not the end of the world, however we did miss the island that has the huge land Tortoises which was disappointing.

Everyday though was absolutley fantastic. I wont go into a day by day description as that may be boring. Everyday we went for a few walks on differet beaches and went snorkeling. On the walks we saw all kinds of animals including Sea Lions, Baby Sea Lions, Seals, Sea Iguanas, Pelicans, Land Iguanas, Lava Lizards, Penguins, Albatrosses, Frigatebird (birds with big puffy red chests), Finches, Blue Footed Boobies, a snake and loads loads more. Any we didn´t just see these animals once we saw them ALL THE TIME. They were not scared of us all all (except snake) and would let us walk right up to them and then they would just look at us. It was really amazing. Lots of them would show off when they saw us expecially the sea lions. They would walk right up to you. I watched one sneak up on a lady sitting on the beach and tap her on the back as to say "come play with me". When we were not walking we were snorkeling, cold but impressive. We saw loads of fish, a few star fish, sharks, sea turtles and went swimming with Sea Lions. THe sea lions were very playful in the water but you had to watch out for the Bull (dominant male) as he would not want you getting to close and he would let you know it if you did.

Not only was the wildlife fantastic but the landscape was too. We saw all kinds of beaches, white sand, black sand, red sand and golden sand. Then we saw where volcanos once erupted and could actually see the lave streams and tunnels. There were some fantastic views.

And it was so relaxing. When we were not doing excursions we were sitting on deck reading and taking it easy. It was def what we needed especially after the caos of china and the flight dramas getting to S. America.

Overall a fantastic trip and very strongly recommended. We went with a company called Happy Gringo and the guide was a real environmentalist and was very knowledgable. The food was fantastic and all of the people on the trip were very friendly. We would recommend this to anyone.

I dont have my memory card adaptor with me so will have to upload pics later but we are in Cusco right now and there are loads of cheap internet places so should be able to add them soon.

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Photos

Rob taking it easy on beach with sea lions
There were a few cheeky sea lions on this beach who would try and play with you

crab on island
we saw loads of these! reminded us of bishops head