Galapagos Islands

After catching a bus over the border into Ecuador from Peru, with every possible appendage crossed for good luck, we arrived into Guayaquil, Ecuador's largest city, in the hope of finding a last minute, and of course dirt cheap, trip to the Galapagos Islands. We succeeded in 1.5 of the 2. Our tour was booked within 1 hour of arriving to our hostel.

The 5 day tour we booked didn't start for two days so rather than hang around the ugly and not so exciting Guayaquil, we decided to spend the "free" time in the Galapagos. So within 24 hours of arriving into Ecuador we were at the airport on a morning flight bound for Baltra Island.

Baltra is the island just to the North of Santa Cruz Island, one of the few inhabited main islands in the Galapagos. After arriving we transferred by bus, then ferry, then bus again to the main town of Puerto Ayora on the southern side.

Our two free days were spent doing the following things;

·Visiting the Charles Darwin Research Centre looking at giant (and baby) tortoises, including Lonesome George (the 150 year old or perhaps more, last of his kind tortoise), as well as various land based iguanas.

·Day Tour to Floreana Island to visit the Highlands and do some snorkelling. The two snorkelling opportunities, Cormoran Point and Champion Island, presented us with the chance to swim with sea turtles, sea lions for Brendan, baby sharks as well as the thousands of fish and other marine life. The water was much cooler than expected however the marine landscape and life certainly didn't disappoint.

·Morning Hike to Tortuga Beach. A lovely beach a few kilometres from Puerto Ayora with beautiful white clean sand and small waves.

·Having an amazing 4 course lunch at a cooking and hospitality school for all of $7.

Day 1 of the cruise - Santa Cruz Island

Unknowing to us the last minute tour we booked actually landed us on a Gap Adventure Cruise. The quality of everything on board exceeded all of our expectations. The motor boat, Cruz del Sur (not to be confused with the bus company), was 80 foot long with three levels, and fortunately for us we got one of the two rooms on the upper deck with windows that opened and allowed us to take in the views and sea breeze.

After being met on the pier by our local contact we were transported by rubber ducky to the boat to meet our guide Hansel (the most amazing guide ever), the Captain, crew and fellow tourists. The group consisted of a comfortable 11 people on a cruise that is designed for 16. After a cracking lunch we were off to visit the Santa Cruz highlands to see more giant tortoises, in their natural environment this time and visit some old lava tubes.

The lava tubes are old caves that previously carried lava from the erupting volcano to the sea. As the lava travelled underground it moulded out and lined a beautiful tube. They were enormous and spectacular to walk through.

We returned to the boat for dinner and a great sunset before an overnight trip to North Seymour Island

Day 2 - North Seymour and Chinese Hat Island

After breakfast we jumped in the rubber duckies and made our way to the island for a morning stroll with nature. Without wanting to sound too repetitive the wildlife, on the land, below the water, and above us was just amazing. We have never seen so many different types of animals living so closely together. The second we stepped off the boat we were greeted by beautiful sea lions that had no care in the world that we were there.

We saw the blue footed boobies (yes that is their name, see the photos), frigate birds, land iguanas, crabs, pelicans, sea lions ... for fear of making this entry 100 pages long, just take our word for it that the list of animal life seen throughout the 5 day trip was as extensive as you could possibly hope for and neither these words or the small selection of the extensive photos taken will do it justice.

After our time on the land we returned to the boat for a daytime transfer to Chinese Hat Island. The name is hopefully quite obviously based on the shape of the island and what it looks like.Again after a little stroll on the island with some very up close and personal encounters with penguins, sea lions and this time marine iguanas we were given the chance for a quick snorkel off the beach. While we didn't get to jointly tick the big boxes of swimming with sea lions, sea turtles, penguins or sharks there was again an abundance of other marine life that kept us occupied. Mia however still hadn't got her chance to swim with the sea lions and two days into a five day trip, she was sure that her chance would never come.

Rather than motoring overnight to our next point of call, we took a late afternoon trip to a little island just to the east of Santiago Island called Bartolome Island.

Day 3 - Bartolome Island and Santa Cruz Island

Bartolome Island is perhaps the most photographed location throughout the Galapagos and for a wide variety of reasons when you are on top of the hill overlooking the expanse it isn't hard to see why.

The island also served a very important role in one of the most critically acclaimed and under-awarded movies of all time ... Total Recall with Arnold schwarzenegger. It also has been in many other movies including Master and Commander.

We took a morning stroll on the volcanic island, followed by a rubber duckie trip around the island to see the varying landscapes and colours that lava can produce before returning to the boat to prepare for the snorkelling around Pinnacle Rock. Just when we thought that this little trip would again prove fruitless to allowing Mia to swim with sea lions, we spotted one just laying out in the shallows. We threw the flippers and masks back on and raced out to find it ... not before we both came across the biggest shark that anyone on the boat had come across. After much deliberation we jointly agreed that the white tip shark was in the order of 3 - 3.5 m and was certainly enough to give us a fright as it swum by thankfully looking for fish rather than humans. Perhaps that's why there weren't more sea lions about. But I digress. The mission was to locate the sea lion and we did. We swum together for around 5 minutes until we reached the rocks on the other side of the bay before we lost it ... just when we had given up hope it returned ... with three other friends to join the fun as we swum back the other way in the shallows and they ducked and weaved amongst us.

After almost having to drag Mia out of the water and take her back to the boat we climbed to the roof of our boat and made a couple of jumps into the water below before retreating for yet another amazing lunch and an after motor to the Santa Cruz Mangroves aka Black Turtle Cove.

On our way to the Mangroves we were treated to an aerial display by a dozen or so dolphins, who were swimming right off the bow, and then darting off to leap a few metres out of the water before returning to join their brothers and sisters.

The Mangroves weren't like the smelly stale mangroves of back home but they were mostly filled with crystal clear shallow water with trees and shrubs growing adjacent and within the waterway.The area was again full of marine and bird life and some highlights included watching the blue-footed boobies and pelicans fishing in the late afternoon with some very impressive dive bombing from great heights as well as beautiful sea turtles and more sharks.

Day 4 - South Plaza Island and Santa Fe

South Plaza is a very small island, approx 500 m long and 100 m wide. The island has a steep slope with one side being at sea level and the other only 100 m away beinga 40 m cliff face.

As the Galapagos has only recently entered the "dry" season there is a lovely contrast in colours from green to red in many of the trees and shrubs which call South Plaza home. This contrast is further enhanced when you add in the yellow of the local Land Iguanas and the blues and greens of the surrounding ocean and bays.

The main lookout is also home of the "Bachelor Pad" for the local male sea lions, also known as the bulls. They are extremely protective of their patch of rock and certainly weren't too happy to have their photos taken at times. There we were taking a nice photo on the edge of the cliff when the 200 kg plus bull seals decided that we should have been elsewhere ... I hadn't seen a sea lion move that quickly on land before and I don't think that they had seen a human ie. Brendan, move that quick either.

With all crew members alive we returned to the boat for a lunchtime motor to Santa Fe Island for our final swimming opportunity.

Mia is still smiling from her time in this place and still calling it "one of the most amazing, funniest and coolest things ever". If it is at all possible, in this location the sea lions, particularly the young ones, seem to be more interested in humans than the other way round. The longer you swam, the more sea lions appeared. It was not uncommon to be surrounded by up to 10 sea lions swimming around and past you to get a better look. The more you swam, the more they chased, it was like a big game for them. The beautiful fluid motion they had in the water was just magical to watch. They were so fast and could twist and turn their bodies in a so many directions and so quickly.

They were so inquisitive that they came and nibbled on our flippers, giving them a tug, just as they do when playing with eachother.There you are minding your own business snorkelling away and a sea lions would grab you from behind and pull you back. The first few times it gives you quite a fright. Mia also got a little love nibble from one of the baby seals on her thigh ... no permanent marking but I had to let him know politely that she was already spoken for no matter how cute he looked.

Again we were forced to pull Mia from the water and this time we checked her bags to make sure she didn't take a few baby sea lions for souvenirs. As we watched the sun go down, the spotted eagle rays and sea turtles appeared right on cue to give us a ceremonial fly-by, all be it the slowest in history.

Just as we had been treated to each night, Hans, our amazing guide with 20 years experience, discussed some of the finer details of the animals and plants we had seen that day. His knowledge was something else and he always had a little life story in there too, a lesson for all. His chats were a great way to end each day.

Day 5 - San Cristobal Island and Quito

All good things must come to an end, and today was the end of our Galapagos time.

We spent the morning at the Interpretation Centre on San Cristobal which is basically a centre which gives you a run down on the history and hopeful future for the islands.

After a little bit of free time in the town, and Brendan agreeing with Mia once again that yet another sea Lion was the "cutest ever", we said our goodbyes to Hans and our boat crew and made our way to the Airport for the lunchtime flight to Quito.

Our time on the Galapagos ... 9.99 out of 10.

We recommend this place to anyone and everyone, it's just amazing.