Cruising the Galapagos - from the ordinary to the extraordinary

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Our final stop in South America was actually away from the mainland once more (and definitely off the backpacker trail!), a nine day visit to the Galapagos Islands. The skies were clear for the flight out of Quito and we were rewarded with sublime views of the snowcapped volcanoes that surround the city. Cotapaxi stood out as the most stunning, with its conical shape hovering above the low level cloud, but we saw about 7 volcanoes in all on the short hop down to Guayaquil, before continuing out to sea for the 1000km or so to the Galapagos Islands. An excellent start to a week that would continue to get better and better as it progressed.

Our visit was structured so we had a day to relax in Puerto Ayora and then we hopped aboard the 'Samba' for a 7 night cruise around the islands. Puerto Ayora was a very laid back little town with bars, restaurants an abundance of souvenir shops and just a great place to simply hang out for a while. Without either of us actually having the ability to chill out, we walked the 30 minutes out to Tortuga beach, and it was an excellent introduction to what lay ahead. It was a pleasant stroll from town to the gorgeous white sandy beach, through dry scrubland with huge cacti all around. Arrival at the beach was stunning, and the white sands were not something that we had associated with the Galapagos at all, but we weren't complaining that's for sure. Then it was within a matter of metres that we saw our first real wildlife; a couple of fat marine iguanas were sunning themselves on some black lava rocks, and there were a large number of bright orange sally-lightfoot crabs scuttling around them. This was the Galapagos of travel guidebooks and posters. As we strolled along the beach and a rocky headland nearby we found hundreds more iguanas, and they weren't at all fazed by us... at one point Matt almost stood on one and it didn't even flinch.

The following morning we met up with our group and guide for the all inclusive cruise. We were a group of 14 which coincidentally included 6 Canadians, and also a couple of Aussies, Swiss and Brits. Our guide Valerio was locally born and raised (by two naturalist parents...he had a good pedigree), spoke great English, and was amazingly knowledgeable about everything Galapagos; we are pretty sure that what he didn't know he just made up, but of course we were all gullible enough to swallow the lot.

It has to be said that spending a fortune on a cruise to an Ecuadorian travel agency, for a trip like this with no certainty for what you would actually get is somewhat nerve-wracking. We were therefore delighted first of all that the boat actually existed, and secondly were even more delighted when we went aboard and saw what we would be living on for 7 days. Compared to where we had been staying it was luxury; very comfy spacious ensuite room, with loads of sockets for recharging those vitally important camera batteries. The boat was roomy and spotless and we had three huge meals a day that were all excellent. Perhaps best of all was simply the fact that we would be in the same room for 7 consecutive nights (I think 4 has been the most ever on our travels to date). If you are considering a trip here, remember the name Samba!

The tour ran like clockwork and we visited 8 islands through the week, most of the long cruising distances were done at night which left the days for lots of excursions on land and in the water, and any daylight cruising we were transfixed on the water looking for whales, dolphins and anything else that might be lolling around in the water, or the air for that matter. The trip squeezed in loads of snorkelling which was magnificent, and the land trips were jam packed with great experiences too.

Words and pictures just can't do justice to this place, its utterly amazing the things that you see on a day to day basis and become accepted norms for the period of the visit; walking within inches of sealions and them not even blinking, having starring competitions with metre long iguanas, even stranger is encounters with things that you are used to but in such an odd way, for example having a hawk just sitting in a tree 4 feet above you not even thinking about flying away. Underwater is no different either, fish swim up to have a look, and we couldn't come up with a better experience than actually playing with baby sealions - them chasing your flippers and you desperately trying to chase after them. Wow!

On the islands you get up close to those species that are quintessentially Galapagos like the giant tortoises, iguanas and certain birds, but also a huge variety of other stuff that you can also see elsewhere in the world like sealions, turtles, whales, dolphins, sharks etc - things that you would pay $100's on for tours in other places (like swimming with turtles or sea lions, whale watching, albatross nesting sites etc) are common place.

We had incredible experiences both on land and underwater. In the week we must have swam with over 30 turtles, at one icy spot off of Isabela island Matt managed to count 14 in a 20 minute dip, another spot off Santiago Island there were 4 white-tipped reef sharks, and at the same time we played with half a dozen sealion pups. Although there is no real coral to speak off the amount of fish is unbelievable, literally millions and millions feeding in the fertile currents. Then as our guide would regularly say we moved from the ordinary to the extraordinary, with things such as swimming with penguins (nowhere else in the world could you swim with a penguin without a wetsuit on!), snorkelling as a flightless cormorant (bird) dived underwater for fish, and finding a highly endangered and stunningly beautiful Hawksbill (aka Carey) turtle resting on a beach....these are the real tortoiseshell ones.

On land it was the same story. Iguana watching was an amusing daily event and with these things you could clearly spot the slight differences between species on the different islands (colour, size etc) which really brought home the ideas that Darwin formulated in this place all those years ago (although we have to say the Darwin's finches, where he really got his conclusions from, are quite dull). Watching baby albatrosses sitting on the nests whilst others soared in the skies above was amazing, close encounters with hawks, and cool seabirds called boobies (those with blue feet, others with yellow bills)...and yes Matt loves boobies!!! Perhaps luckiest of all was seeing a turtle on land finishing laying her eggs and returning, exhausted, to the sea. Then there was the sealion pup that came up to Lynda to sniff her out and almost tried to sit on her lap.

In the week we saw pretty much everything that you could expect to see, and a few gems. Our guide kept saying how lucky we were as a group and that we saw as much as any other tour in the whole year. Now, this may have just been the normal spiel but the whole crew seemed to be pretty excited too; so we think we probably did get quite lucky, and hell even if we weren't out of the ordinary we had an unbelievable time. It was also mating season so almost everything we looked at seemed to be at it, from giant tortoises to turtles, always an amusing spectator sport.

We really enjoyed the fact that we got to visit many of the islands and they all had their own character, geographically and zoologically I suppose. If anyone fancies cracking open a map here is a quick rundown of what we did and what the islands were like, here goes;

South Plaza is a very small islet rammed with bright yellow land iguanas (real big fellas), festooned with red vegetation and small cliffs jammed with all kinds of seabirds.

Santa Cruz is the main inhabited island, where Puerto Ayora lies, and our main exploration was to the highlands where we went looking for giant tortoises, which are just so cool, especially when having romantic liaisons! This island also has the Charles Darwin research centre that lets you get up close and personal with the tortoises, but you can do that in the wild anyway so no real benefit. The only real reason to visit is to meet lonesome George a giant tortoise who is the last of his species, poor thing (he was not participating in seasonal activities!).

Espanola was a birders paradise, and Matt is being dangerously sucked into that camp. But its hard not to be, watching albatrosses everywhere, blue-footed boobies and a large colony of Nazca Boobies (snigger snigger!!) and Galapagos hawks cruising the airwaves just overhead. This island also has one of the best beaches at Gardener Bay, which was rammed with friendly sealions and tonnes of utterly fearless little pups who were just so cute.

Floreana was then a snorkellers paradise, so ok we saw flamingos and things on the island but in the water there were tonnes of turtles, reef sharks and the colourful fish at Devil's Crown were a knockout.

Isabela is the largest island in the chain and comprises about 6 active volcanoes. It was interesting to hear the geographic side of things and hike across barren black lava plains. Perhaps one of the most singularly amazing sites we saw was by the lava at Punta Moreno where a large tidal pool had trapped two turtles and three white-tipped reef sharks, it was just like visiting an aquarium. Elsewhere on Isabela the colder waters were stocked with turtles and other fish, and that's also where we saw the turtle laying her eggs.

The Bolivar Canal between Isabela and Fernandina (see below) is a whale sanctuary and at one point we had a whole pod of them surrounding the boat, which got the crew more excited probably than we were.

Fernandina is the most pristine of all the islands, without as many introduced species ruining it. A stroll around a lava peninsula bore witness to the world's largest colony of marine iguanas, sealions playing in the rock pools and 6 or 7 more turtles marooned in a shallow tidal pool.

Santiago was snorkelling central at Puerto Egas. Ok the main reason to visit was to see rare Galapagos fur sealions swimming and lounging by more tidal pools, but we had far more fun playing with 'normal' sealion pups in the water and trying in vein to chase down reef sharks for that close up photo.

Bartolome Island houses the picture postcard view of the islands across Pinnacle rock and about another 7 islands in view. It was spectacular at sunset but more enthralling was swimming with penguins down by Pinnacle rock and Lynda being scared witless by a pretty huge (harmless) reef shark blind-siding her from nowhere.

The final stop was actually back on Santa Cruz island where we visited Totuga Negra Cove. This is a really shallow mangrove area which is known as the nursery because loads of animals give birth there, but also loads of Pelican's fishing. We found a nursery for white tipped reef sharks, and there were about 6 little ones cruising around, and also yet more turtles making babies.

There are still a few species and islands left to keep us hanging on for more; most people say this place is a once in a lifetime experience, we certainly don't plan on it being that way for us. It probably cost as much as the rest of our South America trip put together, but worth every penny.

When you take all of that wildlife, place it in a stunning geographical location with active volcanoes, colourful sandy beaches, you have one of the great destinations, if not the greatest.

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