Hi everyone, and Happy New Year!

We are back from the Galapagos and we had a f**king awesome time. Got back Saturday afternoon and we are now in Quito (capital city of Ecuador) at 2800m above sea level for 3 nights before we go to Peru.

We set off from Guyaquil on Saturday 27th at 9.15am and flew 2 hours to the airport on Baltra Island. The islands are 1 hour behind the mainland so we got there shortly after 10.00 and the first thing you do when you arrive is part with another $100 for entry to the Galapagos national park. From the airport we got a 5 min bus to the ferry terminal and then it´s a 5 minute ferry across narrow straits to the main island Santa Cruz. Off the ferry and on to another bus for a 45 minute ride to the town of Puerta Ayora on the south side of the island.

Here we set about trying to get a boat trip, our first 2 enquiries were met with "sorry but we´re all full", however our 3rd attempt unearthed what seemed to be a great deal from the manager of Iguana Travel. This guy was called Paddy - black as the ace of spades and not a drop of irish blood in him. $560 US each for the following:

• 1 afternoon snorkelling and land tours in and around Puerta Ayora.
• 2 night stay in Isla Isabella with a trip to the volcanos in the morning and an afternoon boat trip around the harbour for snorkelling and land tours.
• 4 day/3night boat trip to go out to some of the northern islands for land tours and snorkelling.

This would be our food, water and accommodation sorted for nearly all our time on the islands. Paddy also threw in free snorkeling gear and a wetsuit for Zoe for $15.

For the most part our $560 was a great deal and here are the details of the time in the Galapagos.

We found a hotel for the first night so that we could leave our stuff and went to meet the boat for the bay tour. This was awesome, we snorkelled with extremely playful baby sea lions, saw marine iguanas both on land and feeding underwater, blue footed boobies, land iguanas, turtles, reef sharks and a manta ray swam past the boat! After this experience we went out to purchase an under water camera to try and capture future sub marine sightings on good old fashioned film.

On the Sunday morning we went to the Charles Darwin Centre famous as the home of the least promiscuous animal on the planet - Lonesome George. This was an odd experience to say the least. Giant tortoises live to well over 100 years and grow to 850 pounds weight and there were 4 or 5 of one type of them at the centre in one enclosure and then Lonesome George in another. He isn´t quite as big as the others and he is believed to be the only one of his exact species left in the world. They have put a couple of wenches in his enclosure that are similar species but for George close isn´t good enough and he is insisting upon keeping it in his pants!

After the Darwin Centre we took a quick walk over to Tortuga Bay and then high tailed it back to Puerta Ayora to get our boat over to Isabella. Paddy had assured us that everything was sorted but when we got to the harbour there was no boat to be seen and we waited for an hour or so while he scoured the port and phoned anyone and everyone looking for a vessel to transport us to Isabella. Eventually he came up with a twin engined, open plan, 18 footer which really wasn´t man enough for the task - at the time we boarded we didn´t know exactly what the task was so thought nothing of it. Suffice to say, we made it in one piece, an hour later than shceduled and all 4 passengers + 2 crew were cold, wet and relieved to moor against the pier at Isabella.

Once safely on terra firma we were taken to our accommodation and it was pretty damn good. Hotel and tours were run by the same family, and so on Monday we climed out of bed, had breakfast and set off to climb the Sierra Negra Volcano. Our guide didn´t speak much English but we managed with pidgin English, pidgin Spanish and sign language. The volcano was amazing, last blew in 2005 and the 10km by 9km crater is still so hot that you can´t walk on it. Next to this giant crater is Volcano Chico, significantly smaller but no less impressive and referred to by the locals as Otro Mundo - Other World! The landscapes included different colours and formations of lava, lava tubes, too much to describe really so look at the pictures please! The afternoon was taken up with a bay tour by the same non-English speaking guide but we made the most of it and saw a whole bunch more penguins, turtles, sharks, rays, sea lions, iguanas, etc.

That evening Zoe and I took a walk down the beach to the town, chatted to the locals and saw yet another glorious sunset. Our time on Isabella coming to a close we speculated about the next four days on our boat trip and on the boat that would take us back to Santa Cruz. Turns out it was a much more suitable craft and it had enough life jackets for 1 each rather than 1 between 6 like the first boat!

Having returned from Isabella that morning we made our way back to the harbour from Paddy´s office to meet the boat whose name we had learned was the "Friendship". It wasn´t mentioned in the guide book so we didn´t know what it would be like so we had open minds.

Well, turns out the Friendship was the runt boat that gets pushed to the side of the bay and none of the other boats really wants to be associated with. She might have been nice once upon a time but she was showing her age. We knew from the price that she wasn´t going to be immaculate but she would have needed renovating to be classed as shabby! Still, it´s not where you are it´s the people you´re with and we had a varied mix of great people from: the US (x3), France (x1), Canada (x1), Germany (x 2 and yes, one of them was as wierd as they come, off the scale!), Denmark (x2), Japan (x1) and little old us.

The trip started by leaving the Friendship and returning to Santa cruz for a visit to a huge lava tunnel in the centre of the island and to a farm where great herds of giant tortoises live. We returned to Puerta Ayora to buy booze for New Year, back on the boat for dinner, back on land for beers and then back on the boat to begin our trip proper at about midnight.

We had an English speaking guide for this first day but he departed after dinner - turns out he´d had a fight the night before with 2 Dutch guys who had been on the previous cruise and was being given a cooling off period. The next guide was more experienced and knowledgeable but could only speak Spanish so thankfully the Yanks and the French girl could translate for us.

The following few days on board can be summed up as follows. In general, the boat performed admirably (albeit with an excessive amount of noise and smoke). As a result of the noise in the cabin I left Zoe to her bunk and slept on deck for each of the 3 nights aboard and it was nice to be out under the stars. The food was good although the portions were not big enough. The flora, fauna and landscapes were out of this world. We had groups of Frigate birds flying above and turtles, rays, porpoises, sharks, etc. swimming below us while we steamed through the day and then sharks, sea lions, etc. circling us while we were stationary at night. All I can say is look at the pictures and videos when I eventually find a computer that lets me upload them. I also managed to take snaps of a 4m wide Manta Ray using the under water disposable camera but those pictures will not be developed for a while yet.

For New Year we were moored in a channel about 400m wide between 2 islands. At midnight and after copious amounts of white rum I proposed swimming to the other boats. Only the Danish guy took me up on the offer and so the 2 of us leapt off the top deck of our boat and set off. We visited 4 boats and whilst on board the last of them we drank a carton of wine with the crew and then headed back. On the way back to the Friendship the water was alive with phosphorescence (sp?) and we were getting nudged by sea lions. In the morning we found out that they may well have been sharks because they had been circling all night and were still there at breakfast time.

On the Friday we had a tearful farewell with the rest of the Friendship passengers and then went our separate ways - they flew back to the mainland and we got the bus back to Puerta Ayora. Our last day was spent walking tot he baech, perusing the shops and finding grub for the night. All in all a nice way to finish off an amazing week.

Saturday morning we flew back to Quito which is where we are now.

Will be in touch again with the next blog from Peru and will hopefully ge the pictures on in the next few days.

Hope everyone is well and drop us an email or leave a comment to let us know how you´re getting on.