Day 7- Espanola Island

Our last full day started with an extra half an hour in bed so the wake up call wasn't until 7.30am...this was greatly appreciated after a hilarious party the night before which had involved lots of dancing Latin Americn style. After another yummy breakfast we went for our final deep water snorkel off the cliffs of Espanola Island which we had travelled to overnight. It had been very rocky and felt a bit like sleeping on a rollercoaster but was worth it for the day we had. The snorkelling was another fantastic one- we played with lots of lovely sea lions and saw huge shoals of fish so tightly packed together they looked like huge swarms moving around. We also saw a fishy first- a cornet fish which looks like a silvery grey eel with a huge bayonet nose. The coral was lovely too and even though we saw lots of similar things it managed to feel different to previous swims. We then took the pangas to a pristinely white beach where lots and lots of sea lions where having a siesta in their colonies. Although we had spent time with these creatures every day they did not cease to amuse us as we watched them surfing in the water and the mothers nursing their tiny pups. We took a lovely walkt up and down the beach laughing at them until it was time to return to La Pinta for yet another 3 course lunch. It being the last one we ate enough to sink us so luckily there was no swimming in the afternoon just a beautiful walk around the island. The highlight of this one was seeing baby albatrosses with their dancing parents. They were very cute little brown puffs who as usual we could get unbelievably close too. Where there are birds there are blue footed boobies here and we saw them again in abundance. We saw ones with little fluffy white babies, ones sitting on eggs and lots of males dancing to impress their girlfriends. We also saw the white masked boobie (it has another name but it escapes me at this second) for the first time which was bigger and just as good looking. The geological highlight was a blowhole that shot water up into the air like the whales we had seen earlier in the week and we stood and marvelled that for a little while halfway around the hike. When the walk came to an end we were very sad that it would be our last in these beautiful islands but swore to ourselves we would return one day. As I said before I would recommend anyone to come here...it is expensive but worth every single penny and more so save and do it!

The final morning today was extremely sad (only slightly enhanced by pancakes for breakfast) but we have the Amazon jungle to look forward to from tomorrow so where one thing ends another thing begins. The Galapogas inspired me to start a fantastic book I would also recommend to everyone no matter what your perspective which is called "Evolution for Everyone" by David Sloane Wilson- it is fantastically written and provides a real insight into how we got here and the remarkable things we saw on our trip....