A 4:15am alarm in Quito to take a taxi to the new airport located miles away from anywhere. As we left many of our roomates hadn´t even made it back, but that´s to be expected in La Mariscal on a Saturday night. We were quoted an hour to get to the airport but actually it took half that, so we were all checked in and at the gate far too early to justify our curtailed sleep. Luckily it felt like we were going on holiday within a holiday.

The flight took 30 minutes to touch down at Guayaquil and then around 1.5 hours to San Cristobal Island, to a very basic airport that barely sheltered us from the drizzle. We waited for the over-keen tourist clump to clear before we picked up our bags and found our guide, Ruben (who is from the Galapagos but spoke perfect english), as well as some of our fellow guests. Short bus ride to the zodiacs that took us to the Aida Maria, our home for the next week. Arriving at the harbour we had our first slight of the wildlife: lots of bright orange Sally Lightfoot Crabs, huge frigate birds hovering above and hundreds of sea lions absolutely everywhere... lying on the pier, on peoples boats... everywhere.

On the Aida Maria we had a briefing and met a couple more guests making a total of 8 (not including us)... a Belgian couple consisting of Joke (pronounced Yorka) who is scared of water and her husband Derek who is, to say the least, a little bit over zealous with his camera; an Italian couple on honeymoon that spoke very little english; a full-on ginger kiwi family - Bill, Adrienne and their 9 year old Emma; and their Californian friend Leslie, who scored 10 out of 10 for comedy value.

Each day we were treated to 3 x 3 course meals cooked by Omar the chef and the quality of the food for us was outstanding. Not so for our company as poor Leslie has over 20 allergies (one of the most severe being peppers and apples), Adrienne is a vegan and evidently quite a particular vegan at that... and Emma behaves like any child that has whatever they request for dinner each night. Their loss is my gain however, as any food they didn´t finish was soon learnt to be sent my way, and quite often that included extra puddings!

After our first Aida Marian meal we cruised a short distance to our first stop at Isla Lobos and straight into activities. We took a short hike and had our first glimpse of blue-footed boobies (BFBs), marine iguanas and a colony of sea lions by the pier. The amazing thing (or one of them) about the Galapagos is that nothing runs away from people, so you can get as close as is appropriate and take your time. That´s unless an alpha male sea lion is around, and it wasn´t long until the giant beast lunged out of the water like the scene from jaws and chased Leslie across the pier. It was, as she would say a lot, hilarious. To get back into the zodiacs we all had to run the gauntlet passed the alpha, but the rest of us made it with a lot less drama.

So next task is to go snorkelling with him! We followed the rocky shoreline and saw lots of fish, sea anenomes and a beautiful Green Pacific turtle that was so close underneath me at one point I actually stopped breathing so as not to touch him. Then a bloody great big sea lion sawm passed us and scared the life out of me... and then I noticed we were surrounded by them. All the young sea lions wanted to play with us and they were also playing with the rope from the zodiac under the water. By the time we came back to the Aida Maria I was absolutely freezing, but was greeted at the door by Fabian the barman (soon to be known as Fabian the Feeder) holiday a tray of hot pastries!

In the evening we met the rest of the tripolantes (crew) over a ´welcome cocktail`- a rather dubious concoction created by Fabian. For completeness sake we had Angel the captian, Jorge who is second in command, Omar the chef, Fabian the barman, Mario the mechanic and Luis the sailor.

Day 77 - I was sleeping really well on my top bunk until the boat started cruising around midnight and the sea was so rough I took a good while trying to position myself sprawled on my front so that I wouldn´t fall out. We took breakfast at the sole refuelling point near Isla Baltra and then cruised to the south Islas Plazas for a hike to see tonnes of land iguanas and cliffs teaming with swallow-tailed gulls and red billed tropicbirds. The landscaped was also beautiful, with lava rocks, 100 year old cacti and a bright red/orange succulent... but the higlight could have been when Alex got pooed on!

After lunch we cruised to Santa Fe Island, which was a rough journey where I fell asleep on the bench at the back of the boat. Just beforehand however, I saw a huge manta ray jump out of the ocean and flip over (apparently they do it to clean themselves). Today´s snorkelling featured a couple of white tip sharks, three more turtles and sea lions, a huge school of razor surgeonfish, and a spotted ray. As we followed the ray we saw another one, and then a whole host of rays appeared from the murky waters and swam beneath us - there must have been about 20 in total! Alex and I spent all our snorkel trips talking to each other through our snorkels, which basically consisted of "Oh My God" and "look at this!". This time Fabian welcomed us back to the Aida Maria with hot pan de yucca and honey to dip them in. Yum.

Next was a hike on Santa Fe to a beach full of sea lions and lots of Galapagos Hawks (eating a baby sea lion unfortunately), more iguanas and a couple of Galapagos mockingbirds. It was on this beach that we saw for the first time the kiwis assume their rehearsed photo position (Bill kneeling, Emma sat on his knee and Adrienne cross-legged on the floor) without even speaking. Alex and I tried hard to think of a similar pose for our joint photos, but the best we could come up with was the classic lunge, or imitating the animals.

Rough cruise to Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, where we docked for two nights. In the evening we went for a wander around the largest town in the Galapagos and watched a 5-aside football match and was then befriended by a local man called Lenin (his brothers are apparently called Ernesto (after Che Guevara) and Stalin... and he didn´t look like he was joking).

Day 78 - On Puerto Ayora we went to the Darwin Giant Tortoise Breeding Centre and saw lots of baby tortoises (that actually looked regular size) and as we walked further the tortoises got bigger and bigger until we reached Diego - the biggest tortoise of them all! We walked back through town to the pier and on the way watched the pelicans at the fish market, stopped for an avocado milkshake (the first since Manaus) and then went about the pier taking photos of each other sat on giant animal statues. We also saw a sea lion laid on a bench.

Lunch + siesta (playing cards with Emma) and afterwards we met 5 more newcomers... Tony and Sarah from Poole, Kelly and Micheal (South Africans who live in Sydney) and a German called Tanya, who unfortunately scored highest for annoyance. In the afternoon we took a bus to a farm that was absolutely littered with huge, giant tortoises; we´d seen almost 100 before we´d stopped to start our tour! On the way back we stopped in a lava tunnel and saw a cute Galapagos barn owl. With 20 minutes in Puerto Ayora until Jorge arrived with the zodiac Alex and I stood and watched some old boys playing volleyball (lined with the entore male population of the town) and shouting abuse at one another.

That evening Alex and I enjoyed an informative section of a book on Galapagos marine life that had a section entitled ´if you meet a shark...`

1. if you meet a shark... always swim with a companion
2. if you meet a shark... if dangerous sharks are known to be in the area, STAY OUT OF THE WATER
3. if you meet a shark... in case of attack hit shark snout with club or ´shark billy´
4. if you meet a shark... remain calm when shark is sighted. Leave water as quickly as possible
5. if you meet a shark... adopt a sensible attitude towards sharks

Day 79 - Overnight we cruised to Puerto Villamil on Isabela Island on while on the zodiac to the pier we saw three gorgeous little Galapagos penguinos swimming past. We took a bus out to a lookout point where we had views across the bay of Puerto Villamil and the most recent lava flow from Volcan Sierra Negra. Then we drove further to the ´Wall of Tears´, which is a huge wall of lava rocks built by forced labour of convicts brought over from the mainland. On the way back we stopped at playa del amor (which the Italians loved, probably because they´re on honeymoon) that had lots of marine iguanas and beautiful course sand made up of shells, coral and pieces of sea anenomes. Next stop was to a wooden pier to snorkel around a sheltered cove full of fish and starfish.

In the afternoon we took the same bus to another and more intimate giant tortoise breeding centre that was equally worthwhile. They showed us the stages of a tortoise fetus and little Donatello - a 3 week old baby (alive). Next stop was to a former quarry pond with pink flamingoes and finally to the 2km long white sand beach of Puerto Villamil. As the weather was a bit rubbish we stayed at the beachfront bar and enjoyed some beers and fresh ceviche. Here the Italian couple finally found their (collective) voice.

Back on the Aida Maria I sat down to write my diary and out of nowhere Fabian (quiet until now) produced a map of the Galapagos that he had drawn our route on. From this point onwards he started serving me extra food at meal times and would hold my plate while he loaded more and more on so that I couldn´t take it away. Fabian the Feeder was born.

Day 80 - Cruising through the night around the south west edge of Isla Isabela we woke up at Punto Moreno. On the way to the Punta the zodiacs took us past penguins, marine iguanas, flightless cormorants and BFBs and we set foot on the rock right next to a BFB nesting sight. We were really looking as we saw loads of small, fluffy BFBs. We walked along a lava field to a seawater tidal pool and as we looked down inside we saw a puffer fish and eagle ray, and then a white tip shark emerged from under the overhang! The sun came out and the clouds clear to give us an incredible view of Volcan Sierra Negra and Volcan Azul, which has the second largest crater in the world. We went to another seawater pond where we foundmore flamingoes that looked totally out of context in somewhere so non-tropical.

When we returned to the boat we found that Fabian had made us towel swans and also a chocolate bar on each of our bunks. As far as we can tell this was bespoke service as when I saw him next I told him ´me gustan los cisnes´ and he replied with ´especial, especial´. Little sneak.

Next was a snorkelling trip where we saw about four turtles, a chocolate chip starfish, sea lions, a Mexican Hogfish, sea cucumbers and lots and lots of fish. For lunch loaded me up with seconds, despite my objections; of course I ate them, which didn´t help my cause for next time. After lunch we cruised in the calm waters to Bahia Elizabeth and I took a siesta lying on my face on the front of the boat in the sun. Before my nap Angel stopped the boat when we came across a BFB feeding frenzy... there were hundreds of BFBs flying high, diving into the water at high speeds and emerging back on the surface moments later, meanwhile tonnes of sea lions were getting involved - it was a hell of a sight.

At Bahia Elizabeth we boarded the zodiacs and took a tour of the mangrove channels. Ruben and Jorge turned the engines off and paddled from the front, which was very tranquil and great for spotting lots of turtles (including some asleep at the bottom of the shallow waters and others sunbathing at the surface), penguinos, iguanas, BFBs and flightless cormorants. Afterwards we cruised further north along the west coast of Isabela Island and sat at the front of the boat with most f the guests and Ruben spotting volcanoes and wildlife. Fabian suddenly appeared shouting ´hey´with some crisps for us to share with our beers... and thus the fiesta began.

Before dinner we were handed balloons and streamers to decorate the dining room and after dinner we were treated to Bill dressed as Neptune, King of the Sea, sporting a hammerhead shark hat (courtesy of Rubens artistic skills) made from a cereal box, a cloak formed from a sheet and a mop, torch and sea lion mask as his staff. He played his part very well and I was in complete hysterics... because we would pass the Ecuator the next day, apparently we needed to drink a glass of Fabians iced tea and Ecuadorian cachaca cocktail (served from a hollowed out watermelon) to make it safely. Much more of that followed as Fabian got more and more liberal with his ladelling. Once Bill and Fabian had done the rounds, Tony thought it a perfect opportunity to take to the stage and let his voice be heard; he gave us a story behind why s*** is called s*** (which was so s*** I can´t even remember) and sat back down to his bottle of whiskey. As it got later, conversation turned to football and Fabian got especially passionate about his team and even went to change into his football shirt to let it be known the extent of his feelings. It was time for bed.

Day 81 - Early start at 6am for breakfast followed by a walk to Tagus Cove, which is covered in grafitti ranging from 1836 to present day. Here we had a wonderful view of the island, lava flows and bright turquoise sea water pool. To get back to the zodiac we had to step along treacherous slippery rocks by the ocean and as we were doing so a group of about 20 penguins popped up from nowhere and quickly dived down and away again. Poor Leslie had a crash landing into the dinghy and was put out of action for the rest of the day.

Quick cup of tea and then back in the zodiacs for snorkelling. With overcast skies and a rough sea I don´t think anyone was keen to get in the water, but the snorkelling was one of the best yet: jelly fish, starfish, turtles (still not boring), lots of puffer fish, bright orange harlequin wrasses, blue chin parrotfish, more mexican hogfish, tigris pacific beakfish and king angelfish. We returned to the zodiacs totally frozen, so back on the Aida Maria I made another cup of tea and Fabian sneakily gave me another chocolate bar!

In the afternoon we cruised to Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island and took probably the best walk yet... the kind of walk that made everyone wonder if the Galapagos was a real place: carpets of marine iguanas (you had to watch your step), coastline lined with swimming iguana heads and breathing turtles (we also saw our first hawksbill turtle, which are endangered), hawks, american oyster catchers, sea lions (of course). We even saw a great blue heron catching a small, unfortunate iguana.

Back on the boat we cruised to Punta Vicente Roca on the northwest od Isabela Island for our fourth and final activity of the day - more snorkelling next to a huge, steep volcanic crater rising from the ocean and catching the afternoon sun. All we needed to do was jump in the water and stay still and we were surrounded by 20 green pacific turtles all in one place. Then we saw the penguins dodging the turtles and chasing fish right in front of our eyes... and once they´d head off a slow moving stingray (of Steve Urwin fame) casually glided by. Absolutely amazing. We swam further along the coast alongside more swirling sea lions (the Italian girl snorkelled into me and scared the living daylights out of me) and still more beautiful tropical fish to see. Around the corner the rock edge fell away to a deep ravine which led us into an underwater cave full of huge schools of fish. As we got on the zodiacs they took us to see our first Nazca (Masked) boobies nesting on the cliff and then back to the Aida Maria where Fabian was waiting with clove infused hot chocolate and pastries to warm us up!

We headed off on a long cruise to the north and as we crossed the ecuator the sun set as we watched a shark swim by the boat and a couple of pods of sea lions acting like dolphins. The coastline of Isabela was a stunning array of craters. After dinner we went and watched the phytoplankton glowing in the white water at the front of the ship.

Day 82 - Made Alex a cup of tea in bed early this morning, which she really, really enjoyed. First stop today was back south of the Ecuator to the east of Isabela Island and over to James Bay on the adjacent Santiago Island. Here we saw our first fur seals (that are actually a very very cute species of sea lions), including one that was asleep and snoring away while floating in the water! We looked around the rock pools and saw and octopus, and also noted the unusual rock formations formed by lava bombs landing in the layers of volcanic ash. At the beach we put our wetsuits on and went off snorkelling from the beach... this time lots of blennys, turtles, azure parrotfish, cortez rainbow wrasses, giant damselfish, a leather bass and a big, scary looking diamond stingray at the bottom of the ocean. Derek had managed to not see a single ray throughout the week so when we discovered this one we shouted to him until he came and photographed the crap out of it. Of course we came across more playful sea lions, although because Ruben had ordered us to avoid an area of the beach due to the alpha being prevalent, we greeted these ones a bit more tentatively than previous). We had a hard swim back to the beach against the current and as I rested and removed my fins in the shallow waters a giant sea lion came within an inch of me and I started backing away on my bum! Luckily it was friendly!

Back to our cabin to find another chocolate bar on each of our pillows plus my scarf arranged in the shape of a heart! Thanks Fabian! We then took a 2.5 hour cruise to Rabida Island, which is a red sand beach due to an abundance of iron. We took a walk along it and enjoyed watching the ghost crabs run sideways away from us. Then it was time for our final snorkel. Again this one was from the beach and again there was an alpha male about. No bother though as we swam off to a plethora of colouful fish and starfish. At one point we were encased in a huge school of small, silver fish. We had to swim back against the current and as we were doing so the enormous alpha male swam underneath us with huge scratches and wounds along his body. He gave us a shock, but nothing more.

Next we cruised towards Baltra Island where our cruise would end. During this cruise I took a very rocky and wild shower and then sat at the back of the dining room feeling extremely nauseous. Fabian started handing chocolates out and came and gave me a couple of handfuls. Unable to face getting up for a glass of water I asked him if he would mind getting me one as I felt seasick. He instantly went into the kitchen and emerged with a handful of lime peel for me to rub on my hands and inhale, which helped no end. Eventually the sea became calmer as we arrived at Daphne Island, and Angel drove the boat around the steep-sided volcano to give us a view of the Nazca Boobies and gulls nesting there... and just in time as the sun set.

We docked near North Seymour Island for dinner and a farewell cocktail... our last Fabian concoction - plus our final Ruben briefing. He told us some stories about other groups he has taken, including two Chinese families that chartered the boat and paid the chef $2k to catch and cook them some protected Galapagos Crabs. They were fined $25k! Also an American lady who was too fat to get back into the dinghys after snorkelling that they would tow her behind by a rope!

Day 83 - Our last day on the Aida Maria commenced early with our final excursion... a walk on North Seymour Island where we saw the magnificent male frigate birds with their red pouch below their beaks inflated like a balloon, in a bid to attract passing females.

During our final cruise to Baltra Island we had breakfast and finished packing. Fabian insisted on filling my water bottle as he did everyday, and sneakily gave me a final chocolate bar to say farewell. I will miss having Fabian around to look after (and spoil) me! At the airport we had over 4 hours to wait until our flight, and so we sat on a bench outside the airport with a beautiful view of the blue sea and Daphne Island... and I actually, properly cried. Moments later Jorge came over and sat by me, and after an entire week on the same boat, he finally found his voice! We sat there for a few hours while he waited for his new guests to arrive... once they turned up he took their luggage and continued to wave to us from outside the arrivals gate. Once his guests had headed off to the Aida Maria, he left their luggage in a pile and rejoined us! My particular favourite moment was when (I think) he recalled the biblical story of Rebecca at the Well, but I cannot be sure with my level of spanish. The three of us sat, along with Boris - our new dentist friend from Guayaquil - and watched the hoards of tourists come and go. It seemed that that weekend there was a triathlon and lots of athletes were turning up with bike boxes.

With an hour to go before our flight it was finally time to check in. Jorge shook our hands one last time, and then wanted a hug. I almost cried again. After checking in we had surprisingly little time to grab an empanada and board our plane. The flight was relatively painless despite the fact it was going the wrong way, and at Guayaquil airport we made friends with a triathlete from Cuenca who offered us a seat in his bus back to Cuenca. That was until he discovered they had booked an 11 seater bus and there were 15 of them + bikes. We´ll find our own way, although after a week on the Aida Maria, fending for ourselves again will be hard.