Hi, I have so much to write about the Galapagos. And I have it all written down, just not with me.. but I´ll do the pre amble and then tell you about the trip proper in the morning!

So initially we were meant to fly from Quito to the Gals on the 11th Mar. As everyone knows that is a date that will go down in Japans history as being one of the worst days. We woke up to the news (we´re currently 5 hrs behind) that Japan had suffered a massive earthquake and that the impending Tsunami was expected to hit the west coast of south america and on it´s way there the Galapagos islands. Important to note at this time that I was in Quito.. way way inland, and at about 3000meters. We went to the airport anyway in the hope that the media had totally exaggerated the situation but if they had the Ecuadorian government was listning and had called a state of emergency... No Flights!

So we bummed around the airport for a while, eventually left to go back to our hostel.. and beg for our beds back to await further news.. we got it around 3pm.. we had a flight for the following day at 15.20 awesome..

Back to the airport the following day.. business had resumed as usual which means to say that our flight which was due to take off at 15:20 finally started to board at 15:30, in what I have come to realise is pretty standard ecuadorian time keeping, at this point I am going to have to admit that I am full on British, I mean it.. I queue, I advocate the advantages of queuing and fairness.. I like punctuality and I wait till everyone at the table has their meal before I start eating.. like I said British to the core . Having said that we were in excellent company in the form of our new Canadian friends Kathleen and Peter who were coming on the same cruise as us and may I say were very brilliant.. I´m not even kissing arse, they don´t have the address for this blog!

We got on our flight.. I shoveled my way through the best part of a bag of boiled sweets (I don´t like the ear poppyness and I had to go through it 4 times to get to the Gals), I shared some too with the German couple sitting next me and my companions.. I´m good I share! Got fed a truely random selection of food.. crossiant, chocolate cake turkey roulard and fruit salad?? I ask you.. thats not a meal.. just not cricket is it! Then just before landing our lovely stewardess people (not really, bit grumpy actually - they should take their leave from the 7dwarves they whistled while they worked) anyway they opened the overhead baggage cupboard things and then started to spray the whole plane with some bug killer stuff.. the man on the tannoy said it was perfectly safe to breath at least thats what we think he said because he said it in spanish and we don´t speak spanish he coulda been saying hold your breath.. who knows??

We then executed the bumpiest landing in history, disembarked in to the humid Galapagos weather to the sprawling wooden hut the suffices as an airport on the otherwise uninhabited island of Baltra.. at this point you have to pay 110dollars for the right to be there, and make certain declarations not to contaminate the islands.."good evening to you, I hope your journey was good, do you have any goats on you?" ..... ?¿#2** so its just me that thinks thats an odd question to ask of a British tourist then??

Anyway thats me in the Gals.. and the rest I´ll sort tomorrow, I have put some piccys on not many yet I´ll do more of that too at some point. xx