Galapagos

Me again, and this time on top of the world at sea level... no altitude sickness and appitite back with a vengence. Words cannot describe being on these amazing islands and I keep expecting David Attenborough to pop out of a bush and narrate what is going on before our very eyes. We first arrived on Isla St Christobal by plane from Quito, settled into our simple hotel, and were driven up to the highlands with mountain bikes and we rode down precarious slopes on gravel and lumpy bitumen and roadworks until we hit the sealed road into town. The tropical vegetation varies from endemic to introduced plants and agriculture, more like permaculture with avacados, bananas, paw paws, sugarcane, oranges, coffee beans, pineapples etc all growing at random. It is lush. On our first day we saw sea lions, crabs, pelicans and sea iguanas. Then the following day we hit the water and did 3 different snorkelling trips around the main island and a big rock called Kicker Rock. Man, we saw so many fish, sea iguanas eating algae off the rocks underwater, sea lions playing around us, sting rays, sea turtles swimming happly along with a group of 17 following, and to top it all off, a hammerhead shark about 2 metres long swam under me from behind.... what a buzz that was... it all felt so surreal. We ate lunch on deserted beaches with pristine golden sand and turquoise water, crystal clear with small fish darting in and around our legs. My camera battery failed before we saw the sea iguanas and hammerhead so I have since learnt to pack my spare but will get pix off the others. Also in between snorkles we saw a humpback whale and calf and then a huge manta ray, about 3m wide flipping around us. We also saw blue footed boobies, albatross, pelicans and frigate birds which puff up their red chests to attract females. Totally overwhelming for one day!

They feed us well here. We get most of our meals supplied but occasionally get to go and search for our own cuisine which is the same really as what we get in the group. The food is not too exciting here, but fresh fruit, juices, soups with popcorn... yummy, plenty of fish and chicken, rice and potatoes and some vegie or salad is the norm.The following day after breakfast and after I realised my towel had blown off the balcony during the night, and had to buy a new one... we left in morning drizzle to Isla Florianna which was 3 hours away. I was warned by Tim our Kiwi tour leader to take drugs and I had intended to anyway. It was the longest 3 hours of the boat crashing through the big waves with me hanging off the side looking to the horizon hoping my stomach would behave getting sprayed with sea water and totally saturated. The whole of the group was silently getting through the ordeal with ipods or just sitting still as the boat rocked to our destination. We finally pulled up at one of many big rocks to snorkle but were moved on by the water authorities, so we found a more sheltered spot and I decided to join in no matter how I felt as I do not want to miss out on anything. We had more seals, penguins, turtles and a giant sting ray as well as schools of fish swimming with us. We have a National park guide, Zambo our resident naturalist who is a sweetie and so full of information about all the flora and fauna of each island, he is a national treasure. He is just gorgeous and speaks such good english. All the girls want to take him home... but somehow I don't think he would ever leave his Galapagos, and I don't blame him. What a job!

We then motored to our new home for the night on Floriana is which is full of mystery, lore and wildlife. The fascinating history includes whalers, pirate caves, and bizarre love rhombus, well if 3 is a triangle, what is 4... A baroness lived here with her 3 lovers and liked to parade around topless which infuriated the locals, there was death, murders and mysterious disappearances, disillusioned europeans who were made to believe they were coming to a paradise island only to find real hardship. We then were taken to see giant tortoise /Galapagos / after which the islands are named, which were just totally awesome. These keyboards are weird and I cannot find the punctuation keys as the shift does not work... sorry. They are so beautiful and the thing about Galapagos wildlife is their tolerance for us humans who are a bit shutter crazy as camers go off every time Zambo points something out to us... it is hard not to get excited and shoot everything we are shown. Then there is the vegetation and micro climates on each island which just seem to start and end... bizarre.

Then a quiet night after dinner with wine overlooking the small black sandy beach just on our doorsteps... the waves lapping on the beach filled with hermit crabs, sea lions and marine iguanas... all a part of the scenery. The following morning was an hour walk b4 brekky and another boat trip of 2 hours to Isabella Is, the most volcanic island with a giant turtle breeding program, a wall of tears, a brick wall built by convicts transported from the mainland last century who were treated very cruelly to the point of death, carrying volcanic rocks to wall in an area. The beaches are lush, and go on forever and tomorrow and there are pink flamingos. Tomorrow we go trekking to a volcano which last erupted not so long ago and walk around the culdara. Every volcano has a different subspecies of giant tortoise... I will post photos next time I hope if I can transfer them as I cannot find a usb port on any of these computers in the cafes. These islands are magic and totally worth the trip.