Blogs from Galápagos, Ecuador, South America - page 98

Diving in the Galapagos Islands - if you're a diver you already know why that's such an exciting proposition. We were lucky to be able to do so, as all of the dive shops in Puerto Ayora (on Santa Cruz island) were pretty much booked solid. Finally though we managed to arrange two days of diving, albeit with two different companies. The first day of diving was at North Seymour island. There was some current (usual for the Galapagos) and the water was a relatively chilly 22 deg C so both Emma and I found it a challenge. We were lucky not to be seasick too as the boat was all over the place! Not so for our diving companions on this trip sadly ,-) The diving though was excellent. We swam with eagle rays and ... read more

I have been under a bit of pressure from friends and colleagues telling me to start a blog. I wonder what do guys want to here from an Iguana man like me! Recently Iguanas and Tortugas (meaning the giant tortoises) had a hard time in Isabela Island. It is almost a month now since we had volcanic eruptions of Sierra Negra. Flocks of journalists from various countries came to shoot the eruption. It was no surprise to see journalists in a situation like that, but seeing professional eruption hunters was one thing I never thought of. A whole new profession of eruption hunters has been there for years, but only last month after encountering one eruption hunter, I learnt about the profession. These are the guys who will spend every penny to arrive in time for ... read more

We flew from Guayaquil to Baltra (Santa Cruz Island) and were met by Willow, our Naturalist guide and our boat Lobo del Mar III (whih translates as Sea Lion III, a creature we were soon to fall in love with). On board we were met by the crew and the rest of the passengers, a mixture of ages and nationalities, 11 of us in total. The boat was a 16 birth, 25m vessel which was to be our home for the next 4 days. Our ''Sea Lion' was spacious and kept spotlessly clean. We were quite jammy and landed one of the best cabins on the top deck. Neither of us suffer particulary with sea sickness which was lucky as the cruise was not always 'plain sailing'. At night, as we were tucked up in bed, ... read more

We had our last breakfast on the boat and gave our waitor a nice tip, then to the lounge for our Frigate name to be called for the last time. Our last dinghy ride took us back to San Cristobal Island where we waited around for about an hour before going back to the airport. We walked around Puerto Ayora and what a coincidence that the last wildlife we see is the same as the first we saw 4 days ago; sea lions. We had a picture taken of the 3 of us by the dock and then went souvenir shopping for shirts and postcards. This town had some pretty colored buildings of yellow, pink and blue. While we were relaxing with our colas, we saw our favorite guides and asked if we could get a ... read more

At 6:30am the captain awakens us with his soothing voice for our wake-up call. I almost felt like I had to go to work until I realise we are on a ship. Today was the day we were to finally see the Blue Footed Boobies. They look so pretty in pictures I have seen. After breakfast, we sat in the lounge waiting for our group of Frigates to be called. Our guide for the morning excursion to FERNANDINA was Deliah. We had a dry landing and walked on PUNTA ESPINOSA that has a lava field. Fernandina is the youngest and most western of the islands and has 5 volcanoes with one being the most active volcano of the Galapagos called La Cumbre, which is in the center of the island. After landing, we walked through a ... read more