11th Jan 2016

Galapagos, here we come!
Quito domestic airport is a delight. One flight a day leaves for San Cristobal in the Galapagos and we are once again up early, breakfasted and with all luggage left the Hotel by 7a.m. and bused to the airport by 8. Our guide Vivi advises us once at the airport and very quickly we are through security, checked in and ready for boarding. Quick, clean, efficient. The flight stops at Guanquil after 40 minutes to refuel and within the hour we are on our way across the blue Pacific and landing in Paradise.
San Cristobal airport is tiny, so easily our group have collected their rucksacks, met Omar our Naturalist guide for the week and boarded our bus to transfer us the 10 minutes to the Quay. San Cristobal is a small but very pretty little town and in the gorgeous sunshine and at a temperature at 12.30pm of around 80 degrees is most pleasant.
On arrival at the dock as I climb of the bus the first thing I see, totally camouflaged by the shadow of a tree it is under, is an Iguana chilling on the pavement. Wow! Welcome to the Naturalist Capital of the world. Next thing I notice is the incessant croaking of sea lions which are lying all around as well as playing in the harbour. Gosh these sights are truly amazing. We are transported swiftly in 2 dinghys so called Pangas, in this part of the world to our home for the next 8 days, The Queen of the Galapagos, and very stately she looks too.
Omar, our guide is a chirpy, bright Equadorian guy, born on the main land, but he tells us has lived on the islands since he was one. He, as we find out over the next few days is incredibly knowledgable and has been doing this job for 5 years after training in Quito to qualify. He gives us a quick update on things we will be doing during our stay, a few basic rules and safety words before our boat emergency drill a little later, but first the important things, LUNCH!!!
As we find during our trip, food, snacks, drinks are a fabulous main stay of life on board. The group of 14 (two more will join us from another trip later in the afternoon) sit around a long dining table in our main meeting area, a large lounging space, which becomes home, very quickly. We are a mixed group not only of ages from maybe late 20s to perhaps around 70, but we come from various parts of the globe. Two ladies from North Carolina in the USA, a family of 6 from Canada (Mum, Dad, 2 sons and their girlfriends) a couple from Germany, Paul from Ireland, Fabien from Germany, a couple from Nottingham, England and of course Peter and I make 16 in total. A truly great crowd, who as the days go on, blend really well together, laugh, joke and mix terrifically.
So lunch eaten and enjoyed by all, we head to our allocated cabins, by which time our bags have been delivered. We must get quickly organised because we are to head off on our first sortie into the islands. Omar gets us split into 2 groups and fill the Pangas and we zoom off to a landing stage where we see a beach full of lazy, dozing Sea lions. The smell isn't as pleasant as the view of the babies and the noise of them all honking and croaking to each other is so utterly wonderful. We are advised to always try and keep 2 feet from the wildlife as they have no fear of humans as we are not a threat to them, so you could literally be within inches of any creature here, but to keep the fantastic eco structure going like it has on these islands for hundreds of years, the National park only allows 100,000 visitors a year, everyone must always keep to the allotted walkways on any of the islands, and if everyone obeys the rules, visitors will enjoy these sights for many more years to come.
We walk and wander and Omar points out Blue footed Booby birds, which are only found on these islands and nowhere else in the world. We see dozens of Frigate birds sitting in the sparse, prickly bushes all around us and various other fascinating creatures. It really is something to be here, I can't tell you how magical it all is, the tiny beaches are pure white and the sea is every single shade of blue from dark navy to the lightest turquoise. It is so stunning as you will hopefully see from my photos when I add them later.
Our next activity is snorkelling, so it's quick change back at the boat a speedy discussion on who can snorkel and those who are complete novices. Oh, wow, Peter and I can wait to get into the water and see what exactly is beneath the waves. The Pangas are very neat inflatable dinghys that carry around 8 or 9 persons plus the driver. Snorkel and flippers in place it's so easy to just hop over the side, put your head under the water and O.M.G. a magnificent Ray swims within 6 feet of me, it must be around 2 feet wide and utterly stunning. Gosh, what a way to start. The currents are very strong this afternoon and in parts due to the windy weather out at sea, the clarity of the water becomes extremely cloudy, but we enjoy a multitude of tropical fish, white tip sharks, someone sees a turtle. Talk about a tick box of what you can spot, we are laughing so much as a group because usually if someone shouted SHARK you'd get out of the water extremely speedily but here is more like, WHERE??? Oh! Wow! This truly is the life.
Exhausted after about an hour we head back to The Queen for drinks, snacks, dry towels and unpacking, then prepare for dinner which again we thoroughly enjoy. We enjoy a crisp glass of Vino whilst listening to our safety briefing before collapsing into bed. What a day.