Hola,

It has been a while since the last blog post which I believe was during mainland Ecuador. I'll try to make up for it with this entry...there is a lot to talk about!

Since we arrived on the Galapagos Islands on Sept 15th it has been action packed non-stop. An 8 day boat cruise, 3 days getting PADI open water scuba license and then a few days of beach/cliff jumping! To me it has been the perfect combination of tours, scuba and free time to chill.

To begin, we flew into Baltra Island airport which is just north of the central tourist hub of Peurto Ayaro. We grabbed a cheap hostel and went looking for 8 day boat cruise right away. Within 2 hrs we were booked on the "First Class" Yolita 2 boat. Yolita 2 is about 32m long and 8m wide carrying 16 passengers with people from all over the world (Swiss, German, Australian, Chinese, Norway, Columbia etc). Honestly, for the price we were willing to pay, the overall quality and service of this boat far exceeded my expectations. If you want to see the Galapagos and have the luxury of time on your hands, booking tours on the island is the superior option in terms of price point.

The first day we headed inland to the center of Santa Cruz Island where we saw giant Tortoises which can live to over 200 years , go a year with food or water and weigh a massive 250kg! In teenage mutant ninja turtle style, they had a carved out shell for people to try on. Pretty cool. Next we headed to see lava tubes which are long cylindrical tunnels that liquid hot magma flowed through. The exterior of the tubes cooled faster resulting in bizarre geology. We then looked at some old craters and headed to the boat.

Oh yeah I almost forgot, we were extremely close to missing our boat to start the trip! The travel agency told us to head to the pier at doce hour (12 o'clock). To an untrained ear it sounds very similar to dos (2 o'clock)...honest mistake. After our very casual late breakfast till about 1ish we meandered back to our hostel and an employee from the travel agency flagged us down in the streets yelling at us in Spanish (not sure what he was saying but it didn't sound good). We arrived on the boat fashionably late while everyone was mid-lunch. Not our best.

Friday we headed out to Rabida Island for our first taste of Galapagos wildlife. Everyone was pumped! In the first day we saw sea lions, seals, hermit crabs, white tip reef sharks, blue footed boobies, frigate birds, and pelicans...Not a bad day. I think Adam, James and I all agree on the most spectacular animal on the islands. The sea lions hands down. We snorkelled about twice each day and after day one our goal during snorkelling was to find baby sea lions to play with. They draw many comparisons to the playful nature of dogs, with a very exuberant personality. They would swim circles around you, dive between your legs, back float on the surface looking upside down at you and then if you swam away they would follow you and want to play more! These creatures are awesome!

Next day at Chinese Hat Island, the highlight was definitely a shark cave our guide Washington (more on him later) showed us. The miniature cave had two openings, one directly to the ocean and another sky light right over the cave. We swam over and faithfully shoved our head in the cave. Inside were 12-20 white tip reef sharks! These sharks are about 1.5m max, with a distinctive white tip on there dorsal fin.

After Chinese Hat we headed to Bartolome which boasted a spectacular beach view, crabs, marine iguanas, and penguins although we saw very few penguins this trip. Most of the animals are endemic to the islands (cannot be found anywhere else on the world). Squirrels, chipmunks, skunks are replaced by tiny lizard geckos, marine iguanas and land iguanas. There are thousands of iguanas. It is easy to tell whether someone is new to the islands if they take multiple pictures of marine iguanas...after a day or two they merely blend in with the scenery.

Our guide Washington was a fan favourite as he spoke great English and was able to mock every animal call/noise we encountered. If we saw a bunch of birds he would make a hawk call and they would go crazy! Blue footed boobies would start dancing at his beckoning call, sea lions would swim when he called, and hermit crabs would come out of there shell when he breathed on the shell. In my books his bond with the animals are only rivalled with Ace Ventura pet detective.

Back to the boat. The meals they gave us were quite good overall. Breakfast was consistently phenomenal however lunch and dinner were hit and miss. They usually included two or three courses per sitting although if the first was a salad (Ecuador salads do not contain lettuce, just a bunch of vegetables grouped up...yummm...) James and I were in trouble, Adam is a dumpster when it comes to food. That being said we prepared with lots of oatmeal and brown sugar along with fruit loops to tide us over till the next meal.

The next few days we did more of the same, a few tours a day and a few snorkels per day at Santa Cruz, Baltra, and Sante Fe Island. The blue footed boobie stole the show at Baltra as they busted out there 'love dance'. This complex dance routine features one blue foot being lifted followed by the other. Magical stuff. But seriously it was pretty cool as they frequently touched beaks as if they were preparing for a duel or for an 'NHL faceoff' street hockey style. The boobies nest was a circle of poo. If the babies left the next there was a good chance they would be dinner. Another cool thing about the boobies is how they hunt for fish. A flock of boobies will all dive together full speed into the water in hopes of confusing and spearing fish. Fun to watch.

The frigate bird deserves some mention here as well. These black scavenger birds followed the boobies and stole any fish they caught. The frigate also has a massive inflatable red throat which is used to attract the female birds during mating season.

Back to the boat. We made some friends with a Swiss couple Michael and Sabrina who shared the pleasure of jumping off the boat. Most days after lunch we had an hr window when the boat wasn't moving to jump as we pleased. It was a great setup with a 3 m bow and 7m roof to jump off of. I learned to do a back flip of the 7 while James successfully nailed a gainer (such a one-upper).

The last two islands we visited were Espanola/Gardner and Floreana. The best snorkelling (minus the shark cave) was at these islands. Massive schools of surgeon fish, barracuda, massive caves, sea turtles, manta rays, sting rays, and of course baby sea lions. The boat ride to and from these islands was also eventful. On the way there at night, the plankton the boat was driving through became a bright green from the turbulent flow. On the way back we saw mother and daughter humpback whales entertaining us with jumps for a good 20 minutes (this traveling entertainment certainly beats horse horse).

On Espanola we saw the 'Airport' which is a location where the mighty Albatross bird takes off. The wing span of over 2m makes it difficult for them to take off with bushes and rocks around. Therefore the Albatross would walk to the edge of this cliff, spread its wings, and take off.

Near the end of the trip we were challenged by the crew to a game of soccer. Ironically we had the largest and most filling lunch of the trip...fraudulent behaviour I suspect. The soccer pitch was tiny and featured mangroves bordering the field. With Diego the Italian keeping the goal, James playing stingy defence, Adam working hard down the middle, and myself causing a ruckus at their net and bouncing in three goals were able to win 4-3 much to the dismay of the crew. It was funny how noticeably different the body language and team communication was between each culture. When we scored or they made a poor pass a splurge of Spanish followed. Once again not sure what was being said but it sounded similar to John McEnroe or Andy Rodd*** in their prime. That being said the boat's captain known as El Capitano to all, was easily the best player on the field and was fun and gracious to play against. Dinner after was toast and jam.

To sum up Galapagos, it holds up and surpasses all expectations.

I think I am going to break up the Galapagos posts into two section as the battery is running low on Adam's comp and we need to finish off our game of Hearts (James is losing big :P). We are also going to reveal our NFL survivor pool teams for week 3. Next post I'll get into the details of what the loser of the pool has to do...one word...Friar.

Adios Amigos!

PS: Happy 13th BDAY Ally!