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The Blue footed Boobie
Boobies sharing a kissHola again! Another blog in quick succession from the last.
Weve just come back from a 12 day trip to the Galapagos Islands, where we landed on a Saturday without a clue what tour or boat we might end up on.
Fortunately due to the wonders of the internet we managed to haggle and arrange a tour on the sailing catamaran Galapagos Vision sailing the next day for an 8 day trip.
We stayed overnight in San Cristobal before embarking on our magnificent voyage on the high seas. Even in San Cristobal the wildlife is evident as we took a stroll amongst a colony of Sea Lions on the beach there on the first night, and the circling frigate birds are always in attendance.
So we loaded our stuff onto the boat on Sunday and met our fellow intrepid explorers, who turned out to be a global group hailing from Israel, Switzerland, Austrailia, Japan, and good old Brick Lane, London.
The 8 day tour takes in many islands on each of which you would typically have a morning trek, followed by some snorkelling in a bay or outcrop, followed by an afternoon trek or even a
second snorkel session.
The food aboard the boat was amazing considering the space the cook had to work with, we had huuuge breakfasts and 2 courses for lunch and dinner, and each was different from day to day!
Next for the wildlife, I guess the main thing is just how little notice the animals take of humans and how confident they are around us. They havent had years of hunting and hence dont see us as a threat, so dont feel the need to run/swim/fly off at the first sight of humans. The second think that struck us was the variety of species, most of which are only found in the Galapagos (endemic). It was hard NOT to see any wildflie, it was everywhere you looked, from hoards of Sea Lions blocking our path on the treks, to a Waved Albatros who decided to nest on the path.
It was totally different to having to strain your eyes as a guide points out some distant wildflie in a tree which at first glance we all thought was a branch, which is the usual wildlife tours!
The wildlife highlights were the Sea Lions, Marine Iguanas, Penguins, Blue
Footed Boobies, Sea Turtles, Giant Tortoises, a huge Manta Ray and of course Sharks (White Tip Reef and Galapagos). We didnt see any Hammerhead sharks though, which was a bit of dissapointment/relief to Me/Nat respecitively. Nat did really well though and her mum will be relieved to know she escaped unscathed from many encounters snorkelling with sharks and other nibblies, although we both did get a jellyfish sting!
There´s also so much Geology to take in around the area, and it is like a complete time line of volcanic activity, from old eroded volcanoes to fresh lava trails in the West of the islands.
Our guide Daniel was great, and was super knowledgeable about the islands and all they encompassed. Also being a qualified MD helped when Myself and Nat had some stomach bug and the rest of our tour mates seemed to have a shared conjuctivitis infection, luckily we both avoided that!
Upon returning to San Cristobal, we kind of expected to lounge around for a few days waiting for our flight, but we managed to find a couple of great short trails to beaches and bays one of which had about 10 sea turtles near
the shore and a very inquisitive Sea Lion Pup who had a nibble on our toes... he seemed to think Nats smelled of fish for some reason!
So here we are in Lima, Peru, awaiting our flight to Cusco in the mountains, where we start our trip to Machu Picchu.
Hope you are all well, we look forward to hearing all your news and gossip from good old Blighty.
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kelly
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omg
I am sooo jealous as this looks like the trip of a lifetime! The animals are beautiful and so close - it is just so amazing that they have no fear! The boat trip sounds and looks like the best fun. Si and I have now booked our trip to Machu Pichu and will be wanting the best tips and stuff for when we go. As for news and gossip from blighty - not much to report - as said have booked holiday to peru for august and have booked a trip to kent with teh babies for half term - am staying in little b and b with a menage and forest and beach on the doorstep. They are gonna love it! Si and I have been working hard - school is still really shit with head just getiing worse by the minute -still haven't heard about suing thing. Had a great trip with guys camping a few weeks back - didn't do the proper camping stuff as had every meal in a pub so no cooking on stoves. Unfortunately it was the coldest weather and I froze with 4 sleeping bags - si got drunk and slept naked ontop of the sleeping bags so felt no cold! I had to go to the toilet at 3 in the morning and moaned like hell the whole way to the toilet block - Claire woke up the next morning saying it was the worst night of her life and she was never camping again! So much fun - she is really nice but missed our claire so much. The activities were brilliant as we went canoeing on sat - gorge walking on sun and quad biking on mon. Each got more fun than the previous - cat was a menace with teh gorge walking as she led for a bit and climbed through the smallest gaps! I got stuk at one point and when we when traversing through the tunnel I fell off and ended up in deep water (up to my waist!) Have to go as si just called and wants to go cinema so have to run out - will message later as missing you loads and want to share more. xxx