Its hard to know where to start...I spent eight days on a boat (the spondylus) crusing around the Galapagos Islands and it was just amazing! My trip was actually a combination of 2 other trips and the first one was quite a small group (about 10 of us) and our guide Alberto was just amazing. All of our group bar 3 left halfway and 13 more joined us. Our second guide left a bit to be desired (dumpìng us at a beach and nicking off to play a game of soccer is poor form!) - he was however the source of much amusement and the butt of many, many jokes.
I managed to only be sick once and too my credit it was very rough and we ate dinner whilst travelling in the rough conditions. We went to Baltra, Santa Cruz, Genovesa, Bartolome, Floreana, Espanola, San Christobal, Santa Fe and Norht Seymour Islands. Genovesa was definitely my favourite though almost all of them were great (didn't think that much of San Chritobal or Floreana).
The islands are just full of the most amazing flora and fauna - many of them native and unique to the isalnds. Most of them also do not consider humans a threat, so you can get very close to them - in fact you almost trip over and stand on them half the time.
Saw Pink Flamingos, loads of Boobies (the avian kind - blue footed, red footed and nazca), mockingbirds, finches (including the sharp beaked ground finch - or vampire finch - so named because it drinks the blood of other animals), lots of gulls, albatross, frigates and other birds that escape me. Went snorkelling quite a few times - saw so many different types of fish (one of my favourites was the parrot fish), reef sharks, sea lions (freaked out when one chasing a fish almost crashed into me!!), an eel, sea turtles, rays, star fish....
Also saw giant tortoises, sally light foot crabs, marine & land iguanas and I´m sure lots of other animals. The islands themselves have quite unique landscapes - lots of volcanoes and lava. A few of the islands have towns and ports and one evening we went out with the crew, drank lots and danced heaps... (lots of fun!).
If technology is my side, there should be a few pictures uploaded as well.
Of course it wouldn't be a Rachel trip without at least a few obligatory dramas...such as transferring all of my money out of my main account and getting back on the boat to realise that $900 of direct debits were coming out that day...or thinking I'd dropped my wallet on the pier and taking a very fast panga (dingy) ride back to town, to discover that in fact it had somehow made its way inside my sleeve of my jumper in my bag and was safely on our boat...or accidentally resetting my combination lock and discovering this when it was locked on my bag (luckily it was only one number off the original code & I could work it out!).
Anyway it was sad to end such an amazing part of my trip, but its not all bad as it was back to Quito, Ecuador....
