So, the start of my Galápagos adventure. Flight over was pretty painless, good opportunity to start to get to know the group. Another good mix of people of different nationalities, most either well travelled or still travelling. Got to the airport, basically, a huge hut on the island, and after waiting what seemed ages to get our luggage, crammed on a bus to be driven to a ferry, to take us to another bus. One thing I noticed immediately was the heat over here, its lovely (you never know I may get a tan yet!). Trip to the harbour was good. Interesting to see the scenery and started to see some of the wildlife, also had a chat with a local boat mechanic on the way, I say chat, his English was not great and I only know how to say thank you, hello and your'e welcome in Spanish. He did tell me the best islands to see Hammerhead sharks though, which would be great had I got any influence on where we went!! Great to know they are about though, may be lucky. Finally got to Playa de la Estación, where we were to meet the boat, and instantly you could see the tourist influence, very clean and lots of shops selling over priced clothes, jewellery, postcards!!! Arrived at the boat to be greeted by the crew and shown to our cabins, wow, we have an en suite and great view of.....the ocean. Top bunk for me, hopefully won't have any rolling out of bed incidents. First fantastic sight were the pelicans fishing. It's amazing, they just dive into the water, but rather than going right in, they come to a complete stop as if they've hit a brick wall, brilliant to watch!

Met the rest of our group on the boat, they had already been touring the islands for 6 days and seen some great sights. Another nice bunch of people, one of whom, Elaine, lives in Welwyn Garden City, small world! Lunch was great, some sort of soya with salad, all good! This was followed by a conversation about how different words mean different things in America verses UK. Obviously the age old Fanny pack came up and pants etc, but then Jane mentioned a programme she had seen where they were discussing the new Whitehouse Chief of Protocol, who happens to be called Randy Bumgardener. This immediately resulted in chuckling from the UK contingent, whilst Jane and I fell about giggling like naughty schoolgirls, still makes me smile now : D - think we are all going to get on just fine!!

Afternoon was a trip to the Darwin Museum. As soon as we got off the boat we were greeted with Marine Iguanas and bright red crabs (called Sally Lightfoot crabs, not sure why, but love the name!). On seeing them everyone stopped listening to the guide, Willow, to take photos. He did tell us we would see hundreds more, but you never quite believe it!!! The museum is quite interesting, talks about how they are trying to preserve the natural habitat, the different species of plants and animals on each of the islands, and threats such as humans bringing in other species such as dogs and cats. Willow then took us to see the Giant Tortoises, starting with the infamous Lonesome George, the last male of the tortoises from Pinta Island. He was found in 1972 and they reckon he is about 120, to be fair, he looks it! His head and neck droop quite significantly as a comparison to the younger specimens, I imagine it's not the only droopy part.....hence the lack of any baby George's! He does have a couple of girlfriends now though and has been seen pursuing one of them a few times, Go George Go!!!! The rest of the tortoises were a bit younger and many were quite a bit bigger. They are huge, weighing in at at average of 250kgs, and stand about a metre high, no wonder they walk so flippin slow! Pretty cool though, one looked like ET....

Back on the boat, dinner, followed by a few beers and some very intellectual conversations concerning which drinking games we knew. Some I knew and a few new ones, plus we discussed the alcoholic merits of various beers, wines and spirits. My " I feel old" moment was learning that snakebite and black, is now called Snaky B, I don't know, the youth of today!!!????!!!

Good nights sleep, although an experience I've not had before, as at 1am they started up the engines to navigate to our next stop 5 hours away. Feels like being on a train journey, but lying down, and a bit rockier! Loved it, could definitely live this life!!