Hola chicos! In Quito now after the most stupendous, (there, not sure I've used that one before), 12 days on the Galapagos Islands. It was seriously amazing. Spent a small fortunte, it's definately not cheap there but it was so worth it. Where else can you sail around idyllic paradise islands with stunning beaches, snorkel in crystal clear blue waters with turtles, penguins, sea lions, sharks, rays etc, walk on hardened lava flows, crawl and swim through pitch black lava tubes, have a salsa party whilst crossing the Equator as the boat rolls from left to right in the swells of the Pacific Ocean, (are you dancing or just being thrown about by the waves?), watch dolphins play in front of the bow as they race the boat, see huge Eagle Rays backflip out of the water and get up close and personal to some of the planets most fascinating creatures. I also dived with Hammerhead sharks, turtles, sea lions, huge Eagle Rays and millions of fish.

It was all about the Guantanamera! After the debacle at the airport where I found out I had purchased a ticket for Ecuadorian Nationals only, I made it to Baltra, the island North of Santa Cruz where the airport is. For those of you who have been to Koh Samui, you have an idea of what the airport is like. You could say I was a little nervous about anybody actually being there to meet me after handing over a significant amount of dollars to some random guy called Oscar I met in Montanita who booked the trip for me. It was a major relief to meet Gustavo from the Guantanamera who was to be my guide to the next 5 days. My name was on the roster and all was good. As I waited for each 'boat groups' to be populated I realized that we were going to be very lucky. Groups of middle aged Americans, elderley couples all grouped together around guides holding signs saying "Galapagos Adventurer", "Galapagos Explorer" etc. Grouped around Gustavo with me was a Belgium girl (Valerie), a French girl (Violette), two Norweigan girls (Hanne and Anne Mette), a Danish girl (Jette), a Swedish couple (Alex and Hennie), three Israeliis (Josh, Omry and Tza), 3 Swedish lads (Oscar, Tomas and Emil) and a German guy (Hans). Apart from me, the German and the Danish, everyone was 25 or younger. This felt like it was going to be a good group and it was! We all got on so well and had alot of fun. Couldn't of asked for a nicer bunch of people and they certainly made the trip that little bit more special.

We were on the boat half an hour later - the Guantanamera. I was sharing a cabin with Emil, it was pretty small but was only a place to crash. Most of our time was spent sunning ourselves on the deck, partying on the roof, swimming, walking, eating etc. Our first stop was West of Santa Cruz, a 'wet' landing on Conway Bay. It was overcast but still felt amazing to land on the beautiful beach and experience our first close encounters, (other than the Pelicans which are everywhere). Hundreds of brightly coloured Sally Lightfoot crabs on the black lava rocks dotted along the beach. These orange and red, jumping crabs would become an oh so familiar site as we travelled around the other islands. We also got close to our first Iguanas and many Gringos. Randomly I met Anna and Luke who had their passports stolen in Chile and had to go back to the UK. They had just made it back over. I also saw Francine, a Canadian girl I met in Montanita. We did our first snorkel and considering how close to the Equator we were, I was surprised to find the water was not very warm! That evening we sailed East around the top end of Santa Cruz through the channel between Baltra. We anchored overnight at Islas Plazas on the East side of Santa Cruz and ominously, as we sit on deck watching the sun go down, we see a shark fin drift by..... The next morning we made out first 'dry' landing on South Plaza. Here we saw land iguanas, sea lions and tonnes of birds. The landscape was amazing with wild cliffs, cacti and volcanic rocks. The views were also pretty impressive and I got my first site of Gordon Rocks where I was to dive in a few days, (I had heard so much about the place - it is one of the places to dive in Galapagos and you are almost guaranteed to see Hammerheads). That afternoon we cruise to Santa Fe and snorkel from the pangas, (rubber dinghies) in the open ocean. We hope to see sharks but instead are treated with the most amazing experience ever - swimming with sea lions. They are so, so, so very friendly and inquisitive and get very up close - swimming right up to you and checking you out before diving down or around you. Alex and I free dive down with them and it's just brilliant. We also swim with huge turtles. After the snorkel we make a wet landing on Santa Fe and literally lie down with a sea lion colony. It's just amazing how close you can get to these beautiful creatures. We return to the boat and everyone is on a real high. That night we cruise South to Espanola and Gustavo gives us free caipirinhas and gets us all dancing salsa on the roof of the boat whilst trying to get thrown overboard by the rocking boat! It's a great night and the alcohol definately helps sleeping as the boat rolls all over the place.

First stop on Espanola is Gardner Bay - an absolutely beautiful beach with more sea lions. The weather is not great unfortunately but I spend our time there snorkeling. The afternoon we go to Punta Suarez and the weather is stunning. Despite having sun cream on you can feel the intensity of the sun and as we walk we hunt out any shade we can find. Espanola is home for 3 months of the year to the waved albatross as they nest. We were lucky enough to be there during this time and see these beautiful birds. They are huge and as we hit the stunning cliffs and the blowhole of Punta Suarez we watch them glide above us. The place is also home to blue footed and nazca boobies. They are beautiful creatures and also very amusing, especially the blue footed boobies who hop from one foot to the other and stick there tail feathers vertically into the air to attract the females. It's very amusing watching this 'dance'. The rocks and beaches are covered in red marine iguanas, hundreds of them all piled on top of each other for warmth. We watch one swimming around being chased by a playful sea lion. Our last spot is the Galapagos hawk, perched on top of the lighthouse. The sun is setting over the huge surf at the point as we head back to the boat. Another overnight crossing brings us to Floreana. Another wet landing on Punta Cormorant, a narrow strech of land with an almost black beach one side and a perfect white beach the other. We see turtle tracks heading up to the nesting sites, flamingos, penguins and more sea lions, one swimming on it's side with one fin out the water looking like a shark! I bump into Raphael from Montanita who is on a Catarmaran with an English couple called Cat and Damien who I was to dive with at the end of the cruise. We snorkel from the pangas again in the open ocean like we did yesterday at Espanola. Another amazing experience of swimming with sea lions, this time 6 of them who are even friendly and more playful. I get stung by a blue bottle jellyfish but it cannot hamper the experience despite being incredibly painful for a few minutes. That afternoon we visit Post Office Bay. Here, just back from the amazing beach, is the site of the old post / message barrel used for hundreds of years by whalers and pirates. They used to leave messages here and when a boat came through going to the intended destination of the message, they would take it from the barrel. Now, people leave postcards with no stamps, just the address and people can look through these and deliver ones to destinations they will visit. I find one from a guy called Chris to his mum back home in East Grinsted and decide I will deliver this. I had known about this before but forgot to bring a postcard to leave. About 1KM inland from here is a lava tube. This is where the lava has flowed down to the sea, the exterior has hardened yet the centre is still liquid and continues to flow. When the lava stops, you are left with a hollow tunnel - a lava tube. There are thousands of them all over the Galapagos, some have collapsed in parts where they meet the sea to produce stunning landscapes, others, like this one, can be explored. It's pitch back inside and in true South American style, we only have 2 torches between the 17 of us! There is no health and safety concerns here as we all stumble, trip and fall our way down the tube. We eventually hit water and are told we can swim out to the sea. Gustavo, some of the girls and me go as far as we can without having to hold our breath. The water is freexing, it's pitch black, quite scary but an amazing experience. We return the same way and head back to the beach. It's our last afternoon of snorkelling together and we are provided with an amazing display of about 8 huge turtles all very up close.

We cruise North that afternoon to Puerto Ayora on the South of Santa Cruz. It's the main town in the Galapagos and where we all disembark. I will be joining another boat, the Eden, to explore the North, some will be flying back to the mainland and others will be chilling out some more on some of the islands. We have our last night together and get some shore leave, heading to the bars and clubs of Puerto Ayora. It's a fun night, (I meet Francine again as well as Nora and Tom from Montanita and Mendoza), especially flagging down a water taxi to take us back to the boat. There are 3 very drunk Ecuadorians in the taxi too, eating kebabs and needing a lift back to their yacht! The next day we visit the Charles Darwin Research Centre where we see the giant tortoises and poor old lonesome George - the last of his species and despite many attempts of breeding with other species, he has yet to father an heir. After this it's an emotional farewell to everyone and I take a panga ride to my new boat, the Eden. It's a lazy afternoon, the boat is much nicer than Guantanamera and the crowd are completely different. Everyone is much older than me and there are 8 Dutch people. It's fine though, I have a cabin to myself and am happy to get some early nights, chill out and enjoy the Northern Islands. Our first stop follows an overnight cruise to Santiago and James Bay. We have a wet landing on another stunning beach before walking along the coast line. It's stunning. Hardened lava flows leading straight into the sea with collapsed lava tubes creating amazing grottos of crystal clear water and lava bridges across these pools. We see our first seals as well as hundreds of marine iguanas. All this with the backdrop of a perfect cone shaped volcano and it really does feel like you have travelled back to the beginning of time. Snorkelling back at the beach and I come face to face with a very agressive male sea lion who decides to chase me. Back on board and we cruise past Buccanneer Cove which is beautiful before reaching Bartolome and Pinnacle Rock. The journey there is amazing as about 8 frigate birds ride the up draft created by the boat. We are on the top deck and the birds are literally inches away from you, either at eye level or just above. Like a squadron of X Wing fighters they follow us until the chef dumps the refuse and then they are gone! We see turtles in the amazing blue water and jumping rays. I'm scanning the horizon for dolphins and am convinced one whizzes across the bow just under the water. Reaching Bartolome is impressive, the little cove and pinnacle rock is beautiful and my snorkel provides my first experience of swimming with penguins - so cool - and 3 baby black tip reef sharks. Snorkelling past the towering pinnacle rock and looking up is also very cool. On the beach, George, our guide, calls us over to where about 50 turtle eggs are hatching from a nest on the beach. We cheer the little things on as they scamper down to the beach only for about a dozen frigate birds to turn up and pick them all out of the water like it was a turtle buffet. Nature at it's cruelest. Still, what an amazing day which is capped off by a climb to the top of Bartolome, over a barren moon type landscape to the picture postcard viewpoint of the beaches and pinnacle rock. We overnight again as we cruise to Genovesa. This island is basically a 1KM crater of a submerged volcano. Part of the ridge is under water thus forming a horseshoe shaped island. And it's absolutely beautiful. During the night, we cross the equator - I'm standing on deck with a million stars above me and the crashing ocean beneath me. It's an awesome feeling. The 2 walks we do are just amazing. So many birds, so close. We see mating rituals, (male frigate birds with their red throat pouches blown up like red balloons), chicks being fed, hundreds of storm petrels swarming like mosquitos, red footed boobies being attacked by frigate birds, (who are basically just big bullies). Feeding, nesting, fighting, fishing, (boobies are crazy, they just dive bomb into the water, surfacing moments later with a beak full of fish - usually they then get attacked by a frigate bird who steals the fish from their mouths!), bullying, flirting and flying all in the space of a couple of hours of walking. In between times we snorkel in the rather rough sea in the centre of the crater where hammerheads are usually seen. We don't see any unfortunately but I have my diving to come! Genovesa is a staggering beautiful island too. Lava rocks, cliffs, cacti all on this small horseshoe shaped island miles from anywhere in the pacific.

Overnight back to Santa Cruz and the north of the island for our last trip - this time around Black Turtle Cove. it's a very pretty and peaceful place fulls of mangroves and we see lots of rays and turtles. We then drop off most of the group at Baltra for the airport. Me and 3 others stay on the boat for the 4 hour trip to Puerto Ayora. And boy am I glad I did. We have dolphins swimming in front of the bow of the boat for about 10 minutes. They are playing with us, jumping out of the water and zig-zagging in front of us. Absolutely brilliant! Back at Puerto Ayora I meet Kamila and Sarah from Denmark and organise my diving for the next couple of days. First day is North Seymour. We have 4 Israeliis, Cat and Damien, (the English couple), and another Engligh guy called Tom. The 4 of us get on very well and the diving is immense. Beautiful eagles rays literally flying through the water, hundreds of fish of all shapes and colours and then there were the white tip reef sharks. We were floating still over one asleep on the sand, all of us about 1 metre apart when another white tip decides to come and check us out. He / she swims between each one of us several times, eyeballing us extremely closely. This goes on for several minutes - amazing feeling. The dive site has a strong current and as soon as we leave the bottom for our 3 minute safety stop, we literally fly! It's so cool being swept along by the current. The second dive is much of the same and we're all on a high when we get back to Puerto Ayora. Dinner and beers at the Rock followed by another early night before Gordon Rocks. The one I've been waiting for. It's the same group of 8 of us and our first dive gives us what we were waiting for. We're watching a couple of eagle rays when out of the darkness away from the reef we spy a huge shape which is undoubtedly a shark. As it comes closer you can easily make out the weird hammerhead shape. It drifts by and disappears again only to reappear swimming directly below us. Another appears from the reef side and there's no getting away from it now - we're diving with huge hammerhead sharks at Gordon Rocks in the Galapagos. One huge experience I've been waiting for - I had wanted to take my hip flask with me but wasn't sure how the hammerheads would take to the smell of Tuaca in the water. Consequently I waited until I was back on board the boat. The second dive was much of the same again except this time we saw some turtles and had an amazing view of some eagle rays above us silhouetted by the sun. Absolutely fantastic. That night Tom and I have a proper send off, meeting a girl from the UK called Joanna, (both Joanna and Tom are flying to Quito with me the next day) - we head out to the bars of Puerto Ayora. We head to Bongos where the Venezualan waitress, (Claudia), recognises me from the last night with the Guantanamera group so we end up drinking free shots with her and her sister. We are then joined by Becky and Iona from the UK who are travel writers doing a feature on the Galapagos. Excellent night and I'm amazed Tom and I made our flight the following morning! I was sad to leave the Galapagos and would of liked to have remained longer, maybe spent some time on Isabela which is supposed to be immense. I loved the Galapagos, and it reminds of feelings like when I left Rainbow Lodge, Torres Del Paine, Buenos Aires etc: you're leaving somewhere incredible, might never experience it again and am apprehensive about the strange new place I'm going to.

Anyways, I am safely in the Secret Garden Hostel in Quito and already feel at home: upon checking in I bumped into Rich who I met in Montanita and both Joanna and Tom are staying here too. I also met a Ozzie guy called Ash on the plane who is staying here. The hostel has an amazing roof terrace with views over the Old Town and is very friendly - what with all the horror stories of people getting mugged and stabbed in Quito I'm thinking I may hole up in the hostel for a few days before flying to Rio. However, some of the Guantanamera group are here, (Violette works in Quito, Jette is studying Spanish and Alex and Hennie are around), plus Jess is in Quito so I imagine I will be venturing out at some point. There is also the small matter of the World's highest active volcano to climb - Cotopaxi at 5897m is 5m higher than Killimanjaro and is a pretty tough thing to climb, needing crampons, ice axes, harnesses etc. This is another one of those things I want to do whilst here and may well be my last adventure before hitting the beaches in Brazil and returning home.

Voy a escribir de Quito y Cotopaxi muy pronto, si no me han robado, o no me han apuñalado or no he morido on the mountain............

Chao, (yes I now know I've been spelling it wrong - just goes to show nobody reads this far to correct me!).

Matt.