After chatting to a fellow traveller who had just been to Galapagos and a travel agent in Montanita, we decided to island hop rather than take a cruise. In Oz, when I had enquired about cruises, I was quoted $3,000 for a 6 day cruise on an economy boat. Although once on the islands, it is possible to get 6 day cruises for closer to $1,500, I think island hopping is a better option because: 1) the cruises are on a regimented timeline and from what we saw, seemed to rush through visits with the tour guide leading the charge pointing out animals and vegetation and the tourists trying to keep up as they took photos; 2) whilst there are some places that the cruise boats can only access, for example Isla Espanola, there is enough to see at the places you can access that is different and remarkable and most of the time, free; 3) day tours are available to a lot of places for when you want an expert to show you around and explain things and although a bit pricey, you can pick and choose which ones you want to do; and 4) you can choose how long you want to stay somewhere, how much you want to spend, who you want to spend time with and what you want to do.

We flew into San Cristobal island from Guayaquil (which, by the by, has been my least favourite city: the Malecon - waterfront area - is nothing spesh, the food we had average at best, the vibe pretty sleazy, especially at night as the street lights are few and far between and sooo dim!, and even though our hostel room was amazing - in an old colonial house with beautiful mosaic tiles - the manager over charged us for everything and was completely unhelpful). From the temporary hanger airport we got a lift in the tray of a ute taxi to a hostel we had been recommended, which although basic was right on the waterfront and pretty cheap (especially by Galapagos standards).

The first thing we noticed about San Cristobal is the sea lions. They are literally everywhere, laying about, barking at each other, waddling around and generally stinking the place out. They lounge on the wooden benches on the boardwalk overlooking the water like people! They look like seals except they have ears and pads on their flippers which enable them to move about on dry land. Galapagos´ first explorers hunted them for their meat, skin and oil and numbers dwindled and although they appear to be plentiful now on Cristobal, they remain on the endangered species list. They are playful and don´t shy away from humans (although the mum sea lions can be aggressive if you get to close to their young) so it is incredible being able to swim so close to them and watch them in action.

Whilst on San Cristobal we did two day tours - a deep water snorkelling mission to Kicker Rock and a high land drive to a volcano, the tortoise breeding centre and few beaches on the other side of the island.

Kicker Rock or Leon Dormido is a rock jutting out of the middle of the ocean on the west coast of San Cristobal accessible by speed boat. After trying out our snorkelling gear at some reefs off the shore of a beautiful sandy beach on the way, we headed out to the rock. The rock was covered with white stains, which we learnt was the trademark boobie poo stain. Before long we saw some blue-footed boobies and red-footed boobies perched and flying above. The rock plunges into the water at perpendicular angles and the water is really really deep and cold! I was getting a bit nervous about going in but wasn´t given too much time to think about it as we were herded off the speed boat pretty quickly. As soon as I´d jumped in and cast my eyes down, I could see so much, the visibility was incredible. Amazing colourful fish, all shapes and sizes and coral running down the rock deep into the ocean. As we swam around we also saw hundreds of sharks (which we were assured were not interested in eating humans), a few giant tortoise gliding gracefully not too far below, starfish and kina sitting on the coral and giant black mantarays with bright green dots on their backs and which were over two meters wide flapping their giant wings. Seeing this underwater world put the dryland world into perspective for me - it was awe inspiring. After about forty five minutes, my fingers were turning blue and I was freezing so I was pretty happy to be getting back into the boat. We sped back to the deserted beach we had stopped at on the way for some lunch and sun-bathing. To my surprise, a hot lunch was provided consisting of fish, plantain and rice - no idea how that happened as the speed boat had no facilities and only had enough room for the ten or so passengers to sit around the perimeter. All in all, this was one of the best days on the Galapagos islands and on our trip!

After a few days on San Cristobal, we took an afternoon speed boat to Santa Cruz, the most populated island of the Galapagos islands. Santa Cruz was much busier, more expensive and didn´t have the chilled out vibe of its neighbour, nor did it have a large sea lion presence right in the main street. However, there were lots of free activities which we could do ourselves in Santa Cruz like watch sharks swimming under the pier at night or take a boat taxi to the other side of the port to a beach with prime snorkelling which we did with two Danish boys we met at our hostel. After a few hours of snorkelling and sunbaking, we walked down the path in search of a lagoon that was mentioned in the guide book. When we reached a shallow water hole, with pink, yellow and green algae and a putrid smell, we thought we were there. Luckily some people returning from the actual lagoon advised us it was a bit further! At the base of steep lava rock cliffs, we found a narrow water way. The water was freezing as it was shadowed by the cliffs but refreshing in the heat and filled with fish. An American father and son who had been there a while showed us an underwater tunnel at the far end of the lagoon and challenged Brent to jump off the top of the cliffs, about 15m high, into the lagoon, which he did without warming up off a lower rung! Of course that meant that young yank did a back flip off on his go! The six of us ended up hanging out the rest of the day and got dinner (and lots of drinks) that evening. The American dad grew quite fond of Brent and when we parted that night, he said his life was better for having known him!

One of the things I enjoyed most on Santa Cruz was visiting the fish market where fishmongers would lay out their catch and pelicans, boobies and sea lions would lurk around trying to snatch it whilst the fishmonger was busy with a customer. We had a fresh fish and crayfish dinner in the pop-up restaurant by the fish market one evening which was delicious!

The last island we visited was Isabela and it was by far our favourite. Isabela is not on many tourists itinerary, it is quite small, expensive and doesn´t have an ATM! We did not know this before arriving and did not take a lot of money so our stay would have been cut short had it not been that our hostel allowed as to paypal them some money and gave it to us in cash! Whilst on Isabela, we stayed right on the beach, visited a 20km volcano caldera which most recently erupted in 2005, went snorkelling with giant tortoise and sea lions, chilled at a lagoon with bright pink flamingos and cycled to the wall of tears built by prisoners in the 1950s when the island was a penal colony. I actually did most of the cycling trip alone cause Brent got a flatty about 1km in so I left him by the side of the road where he was rescued by a friendly local called Ricardo!