The title of today's blog is a quote from Charles Darwin's account of his visit to the Galapagos in 1835 and it illustrates the uniqueness of these isalnds.

As Darwin discovered the best way to see the Galapagos is to take a cruise. Whilst it is possible to stay on a couple of the islands and take day trips to some of the others a cruise enables you to get to places that are otherwise virtually inaccessible. Now I freely admit to being prejudiced about cruises. I imagine that most people who go on them are either overweight, Trump-supporting Americans or Alan Partridge type, Telegraph reading, Brexit supporting Brits (so apologies now to anyone reading this who goes on cruises and fails to fit either of these stereotypes). But needs must and so, based on advice from Joce and Rick who came last year, we booked to spend a week on the Santa Cruz II sailing around the islands.

The Santa Cruz is one of the largest cruise ships in the Galapagos, capable of accommodating 95 passengers (larger ships are, fortunately, banned). Most ships are much smaller, 16 passengers seems to be about average, and will afford a more personal service with less time spent getting on and off the boat. But a larger ship has several advantages. More stable (Kate gets sea -ick), more guides and more activities and better facilities. In fact we ended up with the best of both worlds as there were only 29 people on our trip. With a crew of 56 that meant we got a very personal service. Unlike The Beagle, on which Darwin sailed, we suffer none of the privations of a Royal Navy survey ship. Rather we live in luxury for our week here.

And the other passengers failed completely to live up to my expectations. Of the several Americans not one was either overweight or a Trump supporter. Not one word in favour of Brexit was heard during the entire week on board. As well as the Americans and British there were people from Holland, Chile, Australia, Germany and Ecuador. The crew were almost all Ecuadorian (except for the head chef who, for some reason, was Austrian) and almost all male (including the cleaners). The only women were the doctor and, interestingly, all of the guides. Our guide was called Fatima and she was excellent. Very knowledgeable, approachable, looked after us well and spoke excellent English.

A typical day begins early at around 7 with a buffet breakfast setting the scene for the meals throughout the trip: well-cooked and presented, a huge choice and as much as you could ever want to eat. An hour later the first activities would begin. Maybe landing on an island for a walk, or kayaking, or a trip in a 'panga' (the Spanish word for a zodiac). A landing might last all morning but the other activities would be for about an hour and then would switch, maybe some snorkelling for those who want to.

Then lunch followed by a siesta during which time the ship would move to another site. The afternoon would follow a similar pattern to the morning finishing at around 6 o'clock. Then maybe a happy hour or time to go in one of the two jacuzzis before a briefing about the next day at 7 with maybe a short talk from one of the guides. Finally dinner at 7.30 followed by, at least in my case, bed by 9 o'clock.

So we have packed a lot into our week long cruise. We have seen 12 of the so-called Galapagos 'Big 15'; the iconic species that are characteristic of the islands (we missed out on the Galapagos Penguin, Flightless Cormorant and American Flamingo) and much more besides. The wildlife is amazing. One trait it hasn't lost is it's complete lack of fear of humans. One example will show what I mean. We landed on a beach on Santa Fe island where there is a colony of sea lions. One had just given birth and showed no concerns as we approached to within 2 metres of the mother and her new born pup. Just nearby a flock of about 12 Galapagos Hawks were feeding on the placenta and eyeing up the cub for a second course (as far as we know the cub survived unharmed) yet didn't bat an eyelid as a boatload of tourists snapped away at them. Behind the beach in the shrubbery sea lions lay scattered about so that sometimes the only way to walk through was to step over them. A bit further on the endemic land iguanas lay basking in the sun and, again, completely ignored us. The tameness of the animals is remarkable and was remarked upon by Darwin. But it has hardly changed since then despite the fact that humans devastated the populations of some animals (in the nineteenth century ships used to take live tortoises on board to keep as fresh food). It is estimated that as many as 200,000 tortoises were captured and killed in this manner, driving some species to extinction.). It certainly makes taking photographs very easy (there is a danger the post-trip film show will echo 'Gone With The Wind' in terms of length.) but, much more than that, it represents a humbling experience and makes me realise how much we have lost in our relationship with the natural world. 'Amazing' is an overused word but it is justified when talking about the Galapagos.

For those of you who like such things here is a list of what we've seen.

Birds

Waved Albatross

Galapagos Petrel

Galapagos Shearwater

White-vented Storm Petrel

Galapagos Storm Petrel

Red-billed Tropicbird

Brown Pelican

Blue-footed Booby

Nazca Booby

Red-footed Booby

Magnificent Frigatebird

Great Frigatebird

Swallow-tailed Gull

Lava Gull

Brown Noddy

Great Blue Heron

Cattle Egret

Lava Heron

Yellow-crowned Night Heron

White-cheeked Pintail

American Oystercatcher

Wandering Tattler

Galapagos Hawk

Barn Owl

Galapagos Dove

Common Gallinule

Galapagos Mockingbird

Espanola Mockingbird

San Cristobal Mockingbird

Galapagos Flycatcher

Yellow Warbler

Smooth-billed Ani

Galapagos Martin

Large Ground Finch

Medium Ground Finch

Small Tree Finch

Cactus Ground Finch

Reptiles

Galapagos Giant Tortoise

Galapagos Green Turtle

Marine Iguana

Land Iguana

Santa Fe Land Iguana

Galapagos Land Lizard

Espanoala Land Lizard

San Cristobal Land Lizard

Striped Galapagos Snake

Galapagos Sea Lion

Galapagos Fur Seal

Sea life

SallyLightfoot Crab

White-tipped Reef Shark

Giant Manta Ray

Marbled Ray

Diamond Stingray

Blue and Gold Snapper

Yellow-tailed Grunt

Longfin Halfbeak

Yellow-tailed Surgeon Fish

Giant Damselfish

(and plenty more I couldn't identify)