We land at a beautiful beach for snorkeling. We snorkel almost every day, but today is really amazing. The visibility is good, so lots of fish schools and big blue parrot fishes can be seen. I get excited and leave the group without noticing. Near a small rock isle I see a black-tip shark underneath me in the water. Then there's another one, then another. Suddenly I find myself floating over 5 or 6 sharks which elegantly swim beneath me. It's an amazing experienc...

After the night on the sundeck we have a new companion on board. A seal (or sea lion? Still can't tell the difference) comes onto the fantail of the boat, enjoying the rays of the morning sun and rubbing its fur on the blue carpet (see pic). It doesn't mind us at all, so we collect a lot of photos with various people and the seal. After breakfast, the crew try to scare the seal off the boat because the wanna prepare the dingies for our first landing. It makes cl...

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...