Hi All,
Well it is our last night in the Galapagos Islands before moving onto Peru.
There really isn´t enough words to explain how wonderful this place is.

Our first day tour was to Sante Fe Island, about an hour by boat. The boat beautiful with 2 x 200hp motors and room they said for 20 people. Geez that would have been a squeeze! We had nine people on our trip which I think was a good amount. It was a snorkel based tour with our tour guide explaining from the boat the features. Taken a little by surprise when I got a little sea sick, as normally i´m not affected however it could also be as the waves were huge. A motion sickness tablet and all was good.

About an hour after depature we got our first look at Santa Fe. Quite a nice looking Island with huge populations of birds. We saw Galapagos Gulls, Petrels, Nazca Boobies and the very cool Blue Footed Boobies. Further around the island and we found brown Pelicans and Frigate Birds, which Phil has named Frigate Bats as when they fly they look like huge bats.

Thought of the day:
Why would you pay to do a boat tour and sleep pretty much the whole day and not even get in the water and snorkel?
We had three Phillipino people (well five in total) and they slept pretty much after the point the guide had pointed out all the birds and iguanas.

We moved onto our first snorkelling spot and into the water we went. Well a few of us did. The fish were generally quite plain with only the occasional splash of colour. We spotted some Sally Lightfoot crabs on the rocks and swam over for a look only to be told to get away from the rocks? Good that they are so focused on conservation but we really weren't that close. We swam over to look at Blue Footed Boobies on the other side of the cove and got an uexpected surprise of seeing the marine iguanas. They weren't at all accomodating in getting in the water though.

The funniest thing was when Phil and I got swooped by a pelican! Obviously it needed to get a closer look at us Aussies.

The absolute highlight of the day was snorkelling with sea lions. This was our next snorkelling spot. The fish were also much more colourful here. The sea lions were completely unexpected as we thought it was just a snorkelling tour with fish. We had seven of them using us as an obstacle course as they played and jostled with each other. It was absolutely incredible and a massive thumbs up to Rob (Semilla Verde) for pushing that tour on me! He later said that he makes sure everyone does that tour for that reason.

Once back at Santa Cruz we stopped at the local fishermans catch offloading area. A number of fisherman were unloading their days catch and we stopped to watch. They also sell direct to the locals and businesses. Can't get much fresher than that! Pelicans, 2 seals and a marine iguana had arrived to 'beg' for scraps. The iguana didn't hang around long once his spot was invaded though. We amused ourselves watching the Pelicans compete for the scraps and the fishermen just working around the seals who had no intention of moving.

After a yummy lunch at Il Giardino it was off to the Charles Darwin Research Centre to see Lonesome George. George was the only tortoise left on Pinta Island when researchers went looking. They bought him to Santa Cruz and have tried to mate him with other tortoises of a close relation but have had no luck with having viable eggs. There is still a very slim chance of finding another tortoise and hopefully one day they might.

Again our luck has been amazing. After walking past his enclosure and not seeing him we returned to find the keeper/staff member turning on the water to his pond and lo and behold he just started sauntering up to his pond! We were the only ones there and got to watch him for about ten minutes before he headed away.

They also have a tortoise breeding program where they are breeding tortoises from many of the different islands and release them back into the wild. I'm not sure if guides were available but we never saw anyone and the majority of the building appeared to be closed. On the upside it meant we got to walk around pretty much uninterrupted and with the lack of people (probably because of the heat at that time of day) it was a special experience for us both.

Another stop at Il Giardino for icecream, the amount of different flavours was great and the icecream itself was divine. Some window shopping and then as we walked past the unloading fish area we stopped and found the local fishermen offloading huge tuna. They would have had about 20 and all of them were huge.

A stop at the Rock for a beer turned into tea and one of the best meals we had here before heading back to Semilla Verde where we crashed after our enjoyable day.

The next day was a full day tour to North Seymour. On a larger catamaran and in way less choppy waters. We realised that the islands to the north are much calmer to get to.
We sat up the front of the boat and met Jeff and Claire from Dubai and Evan and Katrina from Brisbane. Turns out we have much in common with Jeff and Claire and they travel more than we do! It is also their fault that Ethiopia is now on our list to see.

A guided walk on the island introduced us to the Blue Footed Boobies, Frigate birds, Land iguanas and Marine iguanas close up. We even saw two snakes. Kind of impressive considering there is only 4 species of snake in the Galapagos Islands. Also lots of Sally Lightfoot crabs on the rocks.

I have had much fun tormenting Phil with the boobies dancing. Basically the male bird nudges and calls to the female (which he is standing right next to) and when she looks at him he shows her his feet.
So basically it is a nudge and look at my feet over and over again until she gives in. Funnily enough Phil hasn´t tried to kill me yet with my ongoing ´look at my feet. .

Both the boobies and Frigate birds are pretty cool. The Frigate birds have these red pouches that they blow up to impress the ladies.  I think it is kind of like a tie. Useless except for decoration purposes.

After a walk around the island we were impressed with how close we could get to the animals, although it was funny when the birds just look at you as though just to say 'go around i'm not moving.'  Even the marine iguanas weren't fazed by us. Good to see although it is lucky that they don't have any predators or they would just be decimated.

Back onto the boat for lunch and my lesson for the day was don´t believe tour operators when they say there is milk not cream in their food. . . .

It was then off for a quick stopover and snorkel on South Seymour Island where we saw our one and only flamingo. Unfortunately for Phil it didn´t want to be friends and stayed at the far end of the lagoon. After a look at the flamingo we went for a walk along the beach only to be attacked by evil bitey horse flies.

Tip of the day:
When the guide has a towel over his legs and head on the beach it´s probably because something nasty is around.

After a lovely trip back it was off for drinks with Jeff and Claire at Isla Grill (unfortunately then the ´cream´ kicked in and after a quick couple of throws from me. . thanks guides. .not. .but luckily for me that generally means the end of it and it was off for tea)

The next day we were off to Bartolome Island. Bartolome was originally called Hell Island after it's volcanic landscape.

On arrival we were greated by a sea lion on the concrete steps which was quite happy to relax and take up most of the step. Then up a wooden walkway that contains 365 steps to the lookout. The Island has thin soil and has minimal vegetation, really only cacti and tiquilia, which the lava lizards eat the flowers of. The lava lizards are really cool. They nod their heads, I think in a kind of communication to other lizards, hence we have renamed them 'noddies'. Were still trying to work out how to get a couple home.

It was back onto the boat and off to a snorkelling spot which is overlooked by the huge Pinnacle Rock. More snorkelling (life is hard) with heaps of different fish and even penguins :) 

On the boat ride home we learnt losing the computer wasn´t the worst thing that could happen. A family from the US had their bags lost by American Airlines. All of their bags too and they were two days without them. Apparently this is quite common so note to ourselves to remember to maybe not consider that airline.

Some souvenir shopping in Puerto Ayora and it was back to Semilla Verde for tea. It was just the two of us, with candles buring it was really lovely. The meal itself was amazing. Daisy certainly can cook. A good ending to our day.

Our final day and our last day tour was to Floreana island. It was a Highlands tour with snorkelling included. Rob dropped us into town and onto a speedboat we got. This was a little unexpected. Phil was a little concerned with it's construction and the obvious smell of a fuel leak was a little disconcerting. The ride was rough and three people were sick, luckily not us.

Landing at the small township, Floreana is the only other inhabited island, we were hussled onto the bus, which was actually is a truck with bench seats.   It was a wet and muggy day and unfortunately our guide was really annoying. He really wasn't that informative and seemed to be just going through the motions. This was very different to our previous guides.

Anyway onto the trail we went and it wasn't long before we saw our first Floreana Tortoise, well about 10 of them!! They are really huge creatures but at the same time very gentle.

The trail took us around the highlands of Floreana with the only fresh water spring very heavily fenced off. A number of caves and rock carvings were located along the way but unfortunately not explained to us.

Now we don´t know if it was the guide or something else but we weren't really that impressed with this tour, probably even less when the guide demanded that those snorkelling follow him around. No other snorkelling trip did the guide do this. We were pretty happy we had decided not to go snorkelling that day probably due to the water being as choppy as it was and my sunburn/windburn. Phil did get to see the biggest marine iguanas of the whole trip though.

And now it´s back to Guayaquil for a night (neither of us can think of a reason other than the plane to Lima doesn´t go until the next day) to stay there.

Hope everyone is doing well and thanks for the concern about the volcano in Chile. We heard about it when we were in Banos and are quite happy if it keeps us in Argentina for a few more days at the end :)