Las Islas Galapagos

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Wow, our stay in the Galapagos was fantastic, well worth splurging on!  As we booked it from home the trip included 2 nights (before and after our stay in the Galapagos) in a hotel - not just any hotel i must add, we had 2 nights of absolute luxury in a posh hotel, I swear the bed sheets were the softest I've ever slept in (...or maybe we've just got too used to roughing it) and it was so good to feel properly clean!

We flew to the Galapagos islands from Quito and stayed in a boat, touring round the islands for 5 days.  The boat, crew and the rest of our tour group were all really nice and we ate like kings on the boat - everything being cooked from fresh ingredients (a feast of a breakfast, a hot meal for lunch and dinner and delicious snacks inbetween) - we really were spoilt!  We tended to sail overnight to different island and sometimes during the day too inbetween island visits.  As it was a small boat it got pretty rocky and a one point over 1/2 of our group was struck down with sea sickness - somehow me and Gemma managed to tough it out and felt fine...until we got back to dry land that is after ther trip, when we could still feel the phantom rocking of the boat for days afterwards - it was really disconcerting, seeing yourself rocking away in the mirror when on stable, dry land!

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The Galapagos island are basically a unique wildlife haven.  As the whole area is protected and a national park, the animals have no fear of humans which means you can get right up close and personal with the wildlife like nowhere else  - it's pretty special.  We spent the 5 days visiting the various islands, spotting lots of wildlife and going snorkelling from the boat.

Sea lions were absolutely everywhere in the Galapagos, but you still never got bored of them, especially watching the very cute baby sea lions playing in the water (we managed to swim with them too) and then coming back to shore and searching out their mums.  They do make the strangest noises though, it just sounds like they're burping - huge belchy burps!  We also saw lots of iguanas (including marine iguanas), albatroses doing their mating dance (which is kind of like a duel with their beaks), lots of boobies - the blue-footed boobies doing their mating dance were great, the male parades around the female 'dancing' or wadling like a penguin is more like it - , flamingoes, giant tortoises, sally light-foot crabs and much, much more.

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The snorkelling was fantastic to, if a little chilly (I'm not joking, a wetsuit, like our guide always wore, would have been much appreciated!).  Wherever we snorkelled the water was always cristal-clear.  We managed to spot lots of bright and beautifully coloured tropical fish, swam with giant turtles, sharks (!!), rays and of course sea lions.  Absolutely brilliant...if only we could have stayed there longer!