Today we went on a day trip to San Cristobal Island. Yet again we had an early start and had to be at the pier in Puerto Ayora at 6:40am. Here we met Jorge and boarded a small boat - which I was convinced was going to tip over - this took us over to a bigger boat that was taking us to the island. Kat and Browny went onto the top deck but there was no more space for Nathan and I so we had to sit in the bottom deck. We were a bit jealous as from the bottom you couldn't see anything and we were going to be on the boat for 2 hours! The boat was really rocky and I felt really sea sick, I took a sea sickness pill but it didn't seem to do anything. Finally we arrived around 9am and as we were getting off the boat we saw Kat and Browny were absolutely soaked from being on the top deck - me and Nathan thought this was hilarious!
Once off the boat we boarded a bus which took us to a beach. We walked for around an hour along the beach and then over some volcanic rock and saw lots of wildlife including sea lions, iguanas, turtles and many species of bird.
After the walk we changed into our wet suits and snorkelled with sea lions, turtles and lots of different fish! This was really cool and there was one sea lion who was particularly playful! I was still quite wary of it as we had heard many horror stories prior to our trip of people being attacked by them and having to have limbs amputated! However some people were brave enough to go right up close to them - a few of them did get nipped, but luckily all limbs remained in tact!
By this point we were starving and had assumed we were heading straight for lunch. However we had one more quick stop to look into the crater of a volcano. The guide had told us we would be fine in flip flops, but I think he was just wanting a laugh! We had to walk up a really muddy, slippery hill and we were all over the place! We reached the top expecting to see some amazing view but there was so much fog the visibility was awful and we could just about make out the edge of the crater closest to us. We then had to head back down the hill. Browny, Kat and I all linked arms, there were many slips and I even resorted to bare feet as this was better than my flip flops. Luckily we kept each other up right and it was just our feet and legs which were covered in the wet clay/mud!
It was now time for lunch and we were taken to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere which had lots of different fruit trees surrounding it. We were given chicken and rice - standard. Then for dessert we all took a banana off of a banana plant - this was really nice!
For the final part of our tour we were taken to a beautiful white sandy beach. When we arrived Browny realised she had left her bag at restaurant and so had to get the bus driver to take her back up. We had to walk down a long path to get to the beach and there was lots of cactus trees which had a normal tree trunk with a cactus at the top, they were bizarre. At the beach there were more sea lions, crabs and pelicans. We climbed up to the top of a rocky part and just sat and took in the views before it was time to leave.
There was a couple in our tour group who wouldn't leave each other alone, they were constantly hugging and kissing and we were all unimpressed. At one point they were sat in the seat in front of me on the bus and I even said loudly 'its not really appropriate is it' but they still carried on!
On the way back we all decided to sit at the top of the boat, mainly to avoid seeing the couple any longer. We put on our waterproofs but luckily it was a much smoother ride on the way back and none of us got wet. We managed to see either some sharks or whales, we weren't sure which.
When we got back the girl who was staying in our room was there, she waa called Clarissa and was from Argentina. She had done lots of diving and recommended some diving spots to Browny. She also wrote down cool places in to go in Argentina and gave us her email for if we had any more questions.
We were all tired and hungry and so quickly showered and had planned to go for dinner. We decided to have a nap for 20 minutes but ended up all falling asleep and waking up in the morning! Poor Nathan had ended up heading into the centre and ate dinner by himself!