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Published: October 15th 2008
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We found it.....................our paradise on earth........The Galapagos Islands. We could of stayed forever!!
Just one and half hours flight from mainland Ecuador these islands are a world apart. They lie in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and are absolutely brimming with unique wildlife and gorgeous beaches. Within minutes of leaving the airport we were in the company of Sea Lions, Pelicans, huge Crabs and Marine Iguanas. It was amazing.
We decided not to take a cruise around the islands, which is the most common way to see them and just tour them ourselves. We took a speedboat over to the island of Isabella, which was absolutely stunning with long white sandy beaches, it was very tranquil and had only 2000 inhabitants. Its one of the only islands with the Galapagos penguins and a lagoon of Flamingos on it. Our first tour was to a small island just off Isabella called Tintoreras (meaning shark) where we walked to a channel full of white tip reef sharks, which were sleeping there, there was loads of them. We were slightly worried at this point as we were going to be snorkeling nearby but our guide assured us that they were harmless!!!!
Santa Cruz Quay
Dinner Time!!!! After a walk around the island and Dan being chased down the beach by a hormonal male Sea Lion we went to the snorkelling place. It was fantastic, before we even entered the water there was two baby seal lions swimming around our boat willing us to come and play. As soon as we got in the water they came around us playing and swimming right up to our faces and blowing bubbles at us, it was really funny, a bit scary at first but they stayed with us all the time, they even chased off a curious white tip reef shark. We saw three sharks nearby whilst we were there, loads of turtles, large stingrays and puffer fish.
All over the islands were giant tortoises just roaming around, along with the marine Iguanas and endless seals all over the beaches and pavements. The nicest thing was they weren't bothered about us and you could get really close too them for pictures or just to watch them play.There is also a Charles Darwin centre for the protection of the giant tortoise. They breed them here and some were 150 years old and weighed over 150 kg, they were massive.
We also visited the worlds 2nd largest volcanic crater of Sierra Negra on Isabella, it was 7 miles in diameter and last erupted a few years ago, the landscape was stunning and had the appearance of another planet.
After a few days we headed back to Santa Cruz the main island for tours around the Galapagos, we took a boat tour to the Island of North Seymour, which is well known for the different variety of birds that nest there. We saw the blue footed boobie obviously named because of the colour of there feet and friggit birds that attract females by blowing up their red chests, it was amazing to see. A lot of them had just had chicks, which were still just balls of fluff, there was also several large land iguanas that had been moved there to protect them from the introduced predators (i.e. cats and dogs).
There was a gorgeous beach and bay on Santa Cruz called Tortuga Bay, which we managed to visit three times, each time we saw loads of different wildlife. We took a kayak out and saw a shoal of spotted eagle rays and about 20 white tip reef sharks
Boobies....
Blue Footed Boobies - Tortuga Bay right near the shore and just standing on the rocks we saw sting rays and loads of turtles.
We took the opportunity to do some scuba diving as it is one of the best places in the world to see hammerhead sharks and masses of marine life. We took a dive off Santa Cruz where we saw moray eels, stingrays, turtles, seals and loads of fish it was awesome and we did loads more snorkeling off the island of San Cristobal.
San Cristobal was the capital of the Galapagos. The island is beautiful and there are lots of trails to view points, beaches and snorkeling area that we went to. We stayed at a great hotel called Orca where we met Disney and Billabong who both worked there, and organised tours and nights on the beer for us, which were brilliant. We did a bike ride into the highland to El Junco a volcano crater lake and a tour to Kicker Rock for more snorkeling where we saw Galapagos, white and black tip reef sharks, shoals of spotted eagle rays, parrot fish and turtles. We even saw the tail of a hammerhead shark, unfortunately not the whole thing,
maybe next time!!!!!!!
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Jackie Negus
non-member comment
OMG
Definately one of the places on my wish list now to visit, you both look really well and happy. keep safe, see you soon. Luv Mum