Hi all
It´s Matt
this time so I apologise in advance (especially to you Michelle) for the
numerous spelling and grammatical errors that will surely follow. Last time we
wrote we were in Bogota and heading south towards the Galapagos Islands. We
arrived back yesterday and it was amazing.
On the way
down to Quito we stopped at the border. Here apparently someone a long time ago
spotted an image of the Virgin Mary on a rock! So, in the bottom of a very deep
and very steep valley they have built an absolutely stunning bridge and church.
Then we
flew out to the Galapagos for what was to be 10 days of luxury. We were off to
a great start when we had to get off the plane for it to be cleaned in-between connections.
We were swiftly moved into the posh lounge for our troubles with free internet,
juice, fruit and croissants. We started to think we could get used to this! Upon
arrival we confronted our first problem … it costs $100 per person to step off
the plane in the Galapagos. This is only payable in cash (which was all handily
in our checked bags) and so our passports were commandeered. We arrived in
Puerto Ayora on Isla Santa Cruz with nothing booked and hoping for a last
minute deal with 2 weeks of the ´down season´ left. We quickly found out this
was not going to be so easy. As we landed on a Sunday, everything was closed,
and with the cheapest room available at $25US per night we started to worry! We
did however get offered a rather stunning deal of 8 days on a tourist superior
cruise for a mere $650. Ash wanted it straight away, I was more suspicious. A
quick Google search later revealed the cheeky shit was most definitely lying
and it was a rather shit boat.
Next
morning I left Ash in bed and went in search of a decent cruise and our
passports. We had also hoped to fit in some diving now that we were fully
fledged professionals! A number of hours and a lot of blood, sweat and tears
later and all was sorted. Ash was found meandering through tourist shops and I
had paid a small (although not that small) fortune for an 8 day cruise aboard
The Floreana. We also decided on two days of diving first and so had to push
our flights back a few days!
Next
morning we were up and off early for our first day of diving around Floreana
Island. Hoping to see Green Sea Turtles with the possibility of Hammerheads!
With the water really quite cold we had full body wet-suits on, but the diving
was unbelievable. Huge schools of hundreds of Barracuda swimming just past out
heads, lots of King Angel Fish and many more. On our first dive we caught or
first glimpse of the grand prize, yes a Scalloped Hammerhead did swim past, but
I only saw the tail end with the visibility not so good. Second dive of the day
was after lunch and literally seconds after jumping in there were two big Green
Sea Turtles mating about a foot in front of us. It was an amazing day of diving
where the fish are massive; there are so many fish you don’t know where to
look!
Day two of
diving brought more and more fish and then I saw it, two rather large and
rather scary looking Hammerheads less than 5 meters away. It was so cool, we
literally set off as fast as we could to catch them up but with annoying
effortlessness they were gone! The diving had been great and we were very very
happy!
So it was
onto the cruise where we were relieved to find everyone was backpacking and
there were no golden oldies around (sorry grandma). The boat had plenty of room
and the beds were comfortable, we even had our own shower! We got 2 land trips
and 2 snorkel trips each day and we were fed lots and lots of really good food.
The trip was class, it´s amazing how close you can get to all the animals and
they hardly move a muscle. There are sea lions everywhere and they were having
pups. This was great because we got to snorkel with them and they can be really
playful. The blue and red footed boobies were in their thousands the pelicans
everywhere and the Magnificent Frigate Birds had their bright red puffed up
chests out attempting to attract a better half. By the end of the trip we had
seen it all … Giant Tortoises were cool to see wallowing in the mud, face to
face with Marine Iguanas (feeding underwater!) and loads of Sea Turtles, So
many different fish I lost count and the same goes for the birds.
Really cool
things to note were a few schools of Eagle Rays on our last day. There was also
one cool island with no animals on. It´s all very strange as the entire
Archipelago is made of Lava, so this island has a much more recent lava flow on
it. It was covered in these little Volcanoes which looked so weird! From the
top of this island we looked out to sea to find lots of strange splashing. It
turned out to be Manta Rays jumping out of the water to dive down and catch
fish. With these things growing up to 6 ½ meters across I had no idea they
could jump at all, so it was a pretty impressive sight. Also, one night a small
boat turned up to sell us fish. They all sat on the boat gutting the fish and
poured all the blood into the water at the end. We were sat watching it all
from the top deck and within minutes a huge Hammerhead turned up and thrashed
about, apparently annoyed at the distinct lack of an easy meal in the presence of
about 5 liters of fish blood!
There was
one ´issue´ too! On day 5 of our cruise we were sailing at night (done so we
woke up in a new place each day) and it went very still, and very quiet all of
a sudden. The next morning we found out we had blown an engine cylinder and
that we couldn´t go anywhere! Luckily the ´company´ had rented us a speedboat
for the day so we could still do something, but it meant we had to leave the
boat where it was for a few days whilst a mechanic flew out from the mainland
to fix it. This also meat we would have to change out trip so we wouldn´t be
sailing up the channel where we might see Orcas. We were pretty gutted but just
got on with it as we couldn´t do anything about it and still had an amazing
time.
All in all
it was a really good few weeks; we saw virtually everything to see on the
islands, got fed lots of good food, met lots of good people and saw lots of
cool stuff. It is definitely a place worth the cost, and we will definitely be
going back when we win the lottery!
Hope everyone
is well and enjoying work!
Oh yea, we
must be doing ok with this blog because it was featured on the website a few
weeks ago!
Matt and
Ash x
PS. Last
night, without the help of the all knowing Ashlee, I won my first ever pub
quiz. Please send your congratulations as I am rather proud!
