We practically stumble across land Iguanas. I find them really beautiful - they look like little dragons. They can be up to 1 m long, and are grey / yellow. Their heads are full of funny scales and thorns, giving rise to a complex pattern. Without minding us, they lie on the path or slowly walk next to us. Land Iguanas have a life expectancy similar to humans. Some iguanas here on the Galapagos have already been alive during the second world war.

After a couple of beers we (Hannah, Claudia, Laura and me) decide to not use our small and not-so-comfty cabins tonight and sleep on the sundeck. Sunchairs with bedsheets are not so bad! Unfortunately the exhaust of the ship's generator is on the sundeck, which makes sleeping a little hard (especially the noise - the diesel smell is not so bad). I can't sleep until 3 in the night, so I just watch the stars which are incredible - so clear, no city lights, no air ...

The next funny creature is the blue-footed boobie. No joke, the picture is real! And the blue feet are the assets of these birds - when trying to get a mate, the males dance in a funny way, showing their feet to the females. The one with the bluest feet wins. If I hadn't seen them, I would believe these birds are just a comic-book invention, but they are real, and they don't mind us coming really close, so I could take a lot of cool photos. As funny as they look...

We make our first landing on santa cruz and walk a tour on a rocky, dry landscape. There is moss, grass, and small trees with greyish wood and little pale leaves. We are totally amazed, as this island is packed with life. I've never seen anything like this before. There are land iguanas everywhere. Probably the most amazing thing here are the birds. The air and the trees are full of them, mostly fregate birds - large elegant birds that already followed us on the ...

Today we start the galapagos tour. I'm sharing the hotel room, and later the ship cabin with Andrew, an guy from Sydney. It turns out that we are the only ones who joined the tour on their own, while everyone else came with friends or family - so I'm glad to a have a guy of similar age and spirit in my room. In the hotel (the Hilton!!!) we met our tourmates. It turned out to be a good idea to take one of the cheapest boats. I already saw myself amongst a mixture...