Galapagos

Hello folks

Yes it is time for another update. We arrived back from the Galapagos trip last night after spending a week travelling around the islands by boat. It was crap.................
...... only joking. It was a totally brilliant adventure. We flew out to Puerta Ayorta with AeroGal who are a local outfit, and a great improvement on American Airlines. They actually feed and water you!

The first day we arrived as newbies on the boat. Everyone else had been there for a few days so it was a bit odd, but after a spot of lunch we got chatting to everyone and felt at home. There were 14 of us in total. There were a few Auzzies and some Brits so there was plenty to talk about i.e cricket and rugby (haha). Plus 8 crew and our fantastic guide Roberto.


We visited the Charles Darwin Centre in the afternoon, which is where they breed turtles and iguanas in captivity. It is not really my cup of tea - but we did get some good pictures of the giant turtles having a late lunch.

We got back on the boat and had our our briefing about the next day before having a great dinner and a few beers. We then heading off to bed. Delux bunk-beds no less with an en suite shower. It took a while to get used to being on a boat nearly 24/7. The first night we set sail for another island at 11pm and sailed through the night. I slept for about 45 mins as we were pretty close to the engine, and I kept thinking I would fall out of bed, so when we woke at 5.30am to get ready for the day I thought I would never survive another week. But after a while you get used to it.

The second day we got ready for our first dive in the Galapagos. It was pretty cold in the water so we were wearing full wetsuits, gloves and booties. I had a few problems descending as I couldn´t work out how to deflate my BCD but after a couple of mins we got to the sea bed and were immediately greeted by 2 sealions who came over to have a look at us. They played in the water for about 5 mins before swimming off. Within a few minutes we also saw about 15 rays swimming across the bottom and then about 5 galapagos sharks swam over head. Then Roberto spotted a Pacific white tipped oceanic shark which looked pretty scary. Big eyes and bigger teeth. At this point my blood pressure did go up a bit but it just swam around us a couple of times and then headed off. There were loads of turtles and big schools of fish. Every few feet there was something to see. After about 45 mins we headed back up to the surface and arrived back on the boat for breakfast at 7.15.

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We headed off to Floreana after breakfast for a bit of wildlife watching on the beach. I have never seen as many animals and birds in my life. It is really crazy. First of all we happened upon a lake with 100´s of flamingos in it. It looked like something out of Alice in Wonderland.

Then we went down to the beach so do a bit of wildlife spotting. We saw thousands of rock crabs which congregate close to the water. The colours are amazing. After mooching around on the beach we took a dingy to the surrounding islands and saw a sealion giving birth to a pup which was pretty incredible. She didn´t seem at all bothered by us passing by.

We saw some great birds including the famous blue footed boobie and lots of pelicans (see below) .

We rounded off the day by snorkelling off the beach and swimming with some giant turtles and a sea lion. Not a bad day at the office!

The next day we went hunting for marine and land Iguanas and found quite a few lurking around the trails and lounging on the rocks. You can see our boat in the background of this shot.

This is the prickily pear which is the iguanas favourite food. He gets rid of the spines with his claws before chewing on it for a couple of days. Nice!

On the last day we went in search of the `Magnificent Frigate bird´. While we were watching a male do his mating ritual which involved puffing out his red double chin and making a noise like a machine gun (very impressive) he managed to attract a female admirer. Here he is looking very pleased with himself.

Hope you are all well and enjoying the snow!

Lots of love

Tigs x