Tuesday 12th April So up at 6 we had breakfast at 6.30 then we had to get on the panga to Espanola Island; One of the most beautiful of all the Galapagos islands. Espanola is the most southerly in the archipelago. Our first stop was Punta Suraez; on the western end of the island. When we arrived there was a very dominant male sea lion that would not let us pass so we had to climb the rocks around him! We did a rocky 2km trail for about 2 hours that took us thro...

Monday 11th April The Galapagos Islands were declared a national park in 1959. Organised tourism began in the 1960's and by the 1990's some 60,000 people visited annually. Today over 180,000 people visit each year. Up at 6.30 absolutely shattered, breakfast at 7 then onto Floreana Island; The 6th largest island where several dozen people live. After the departure of Patrick Watkins, the first known resident in all the archipelago, Floreana was turned into a pen...

Sunday 10th April The Galapagos are an isolated group of volcanic islands. There are 13 main islands, 6 minor islands and scores of islets. 5 of the islands are inhabited. Galapagos Islands; discovered by accident in 1535 when Tomas de Berlanga drifted off course while sailing from Panama to Peru, the discovery was reported to King Charles V of Spain and included in the report a description of the giant Galapagos tortoises from which the islands received their ...

Friday 8th April Half the money paid (we were to pay in the rest bank when in the Galapagos.) We got a taxi back to the airport for our flight to Santa Cruz; INFO. Our bags had to be extra scanned and searched for this flight as there are alot of restrictions on what can be taken into the Galapagos! Flight was fine; we landed in Baltra; a small island north of Santa Cruz. We had to get a boat over to Santa Cruz then a public bus for an hour to the town of Puert...

Wednesday 6th April We got up (late!) checked out the hostel and grabbed some breakfast before getting our taxi to Talara airport. We flew back to Lima with no delays and got to our hostel for the night. Thursday 7th April Back to Lima airport to fly to Guayaquil, we arrived at lunchtime; it was roasting in Guayaquil! We got a taxi straight to our hostel (that had a travel agent too) in search of a Galapagos cruise!  It was alot easier finding a cruise than ...