We visit a second amazing giant turtoise breeding project on Santa Cruz, and then take off to the new airport in Quito that has just opened today (with some delay). Goodbye Galapagos! So many incredible memories. The animals, the wonderful boat and crew, and really nice people in my group. This was the most amazing trip I have done so far! I recommend everyone: go to the Galapagos if you have the chance. It's an instable ecosystem, so no-one knows how it will lo...

We see our last sunset on the Galapagos Islands. This was an unbelievably amazing week!

On our last full day we land on a nice beach and do sunbathing and swimming while our ship gets a diesel refill. We happen to rest near a place with two hammocks, that also the sea lions have chosen as their resting place. I lay down while they are playing in the water, and later they came back, lying next to me and looking at me like "what are you doing here?".

In our final Isabela landing we visit the land turtoise breeding center. Of the originally 14 land turtoise species, four are extinct (the famous "lonesome George", last of his species, died last year). 20-30 years ago, a couple more species have been close to distinction, with as few as 10 or less animals left. Turtoise extinction has been almost exclusively been due to human intervention, starting with the pirates who used turtoises as living food stock, all th...

Our second-to-last landing on isabela leads us to a very unusual place. On a rocky coast, a natural channel filled with sea water exists, maybe 100 meters long, 2 meters narrow and rather shallow. Surrounded by sea iguanas, both sea turtles and black-tip sharks are breeding in this channel nearby. We see 5 or 6 sharks resting on the ground, and sea turtles swimming across them seemingly careless. Close to the end of the channel there is a group of sea turtles ma...