Galapagos Islands 15th May

Day 1: After taking many different modes of transport and getting pretty confused, we eventually got to our boat, the Angelique. Once a sailing boat it has now been renovated to cruise round the Galapagos Islands - no sails sadly, all motorised. A quick briefing on the boat and then we were on our way back onto the terra firma of Santa Cruz, the island we had just travelled from, to go to the tortoise sanctuary. On our way in we saw a "honkey". Looks like a horse (ish), but brays like a donkey in acute pain. This was one of the more bizarre things we came across!

Walking around the tortoise sanctuary we saw the islands famous huge tortoises - weighing in at 200kg some of them, and up to a few hundred years old they are able to carry a human on their back, although we were clearly not allowed to give it a try. They reminded me of elephants, with their grey wrinkly skin and padded feet, as ancient as time itself. I loved these guys - they are somehow, really endearing animals.

Back to the boat, and during the journey we saw one of the main features of our trip here - sea lions. We also saw the silhouettes of sharks.....

We met the rest of the group and had dinner - who ever has had popcorn soup.....? Pretty cool though, you just drop them in and enjoy, the salt adds good flavour to the soup! The people seem to be pretty clearly split between the younger crowd who are all good fun, and the older crowd. The boat sails at night, so around midnight we got a shock as the boat started up and headed off to the next day's destination. Being a novice to boats this seemed pretty scary to me, and my questions to Sean & other guys on the trip about the cabins being watertight, and what we do if the boat turns over were met with much laughter.

Day 2: An early visit to Floriana Island, to Post office bay. This historically was where pirates and whalers would leave post, and the next group who called would pick up the post addressed to their next destination and deliver it. Nowadays, all the tourists put in their postcards; you look through them all, and take home any that live close to you to deliver to keep the tradition going. We found 3 that were pretty close, so picked them up and dropped off one for Swansea….I think that might be a little optimistic, not sure how many people from little villages in Wales will travel to the Galapagos, but we shall see! We went for a snorkel in the bay and were joined by curious seals, who kept swimming right up to people, me especially (think the pink snorkel did it), playing games and doing tricks in the sea. It was an incredible experience.

Back to the boat on the little dingy that took us to the islands, and straight out for some more snorkelling at devils crown, an outcrop where the current carries you as it chooses and at pace - this is speed snorkelling! Snorkelling was the highlight of this trip, and we saw here amazing sea stars, parrot fish, angel fish, pencil fish and lots of tropical fish. Sadly the time spent snorkelling always seemed too short.

After lunch and siesta time (you've got to love South America!) we headed back to Floriana island, for a walk to a saline lake. This is home to some amazingly pink flamingos, this species native to the Galapagos (as were so many of the animals we saw). We also saw hermit crabs and lava iguanas here.

Back to the boat, another 3 course dinner, a drink or three and the motion of the boat soon makes you feel sleepy! So far no sea sickness, thank goodness!

Day 3: Started with a visit to Garder bay in Espanola Island, with another visit to the sea lions, who covered the beach. We took a walk along the beach to look at them which prove a little bit chaotic - trying to avoid their poo, liberally dotted around, and steer clear of males or nursing mothers. The noisy creatures like to chat with growls to other groups and shuffle around on their back fins. Amazing how a creature so graceful and streamlined under water looks so inept out of the water.

Back to the boat and off to another point to snorkel, this was possibly the best one. We saw Octopus mating and changing colour, a huge diamond ray (4.5 ft wide), yellow puffer fish and lots of beautifully coloured tropical fish.

Later on in the afternoon we went back onto the island to see the many birds and iguanas as well as caught sight of albatrosses doing their intricate courting dance, which even as a non bird lover was really quite amazing. We also watched the masked boobies (famous on the islands) doing their mating dances.

Day 4: First stop was to Santa Fe Island, to see land iguanas, lava lizards and more sea lions! This was followed by another contender for the best snorkelling around an outcrop off the coast where we saw turtles swimming, grey trumpet fish, a manta ray, spotted eagle ray and scorpion fish. In the shallower water we found a huge school of fish that would swim away and part as you duck under to look at / swim with them - there were hundreds and hundreds. Felt like in Finding Nemo when the school of fish make shapes under water - quite amazing.

Later in the afternoon we went to South Plaza Island to see iguanas, doves, swallowtail gulls, red billed tropic birds, pelicans and also a (reef) shark just off the coastline. Back on the boat, everyone congregated on the top deck, enjoyed beers and chatted which was the first time we had really done this. Just around dinner time, and then afterward as well, we had 3 Galapagos sharks circling the boat which we watched for a long while. The underneath of the boat attracts many little fish with the algae, so presumably they were going for them.

Day 5: Before heading back we had a last stop off at North Seymour Island, where we saw lots of frigate birds. These guys have a red balloon at their throat which they inflate to attract females, it's very bizarre to see these birds with a big blown up red balloon under their beak. We saw loads of amazing things in the Galapagos, made more amazing by the explanations from our guide Marlon, who was a mine of information. It really was an experience seeing these volcanic islands and the different forms of life the different islands support. Not at all what we had expected, certainly not tropical islands, and without the explanations of the individuality of the fauna and flora much would have been lost on us.

We flew back to Quito in Ecuador, our base between Galapagos and Amazon, found a superb restaurant just round the block and then caught an early night in preparation for our trip to the Amazon in the morning.