Galapagos Islands - Day 1 & 2

Rock out with your Galapagos tortoise out
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The few days I spent in the Galapagos Islands have been the most incredible few days of my life.  Big call I know!!

It was so diverse in landscape, so empty of people, so peaceful, so full of animals and it seemed like I couldn’t take a step without almost stepping on some creature!

If you ever travel back in time, don't step on anything!

We flew to the islands and upon landing we drove to the large island of Santa Cruz where we would just pull over, walk a few dozen metres off the road and see stunning landscape.  We saw huge sinkholes in the earth from collapsed volcanos and also walked 250 metres through a lava tunnel that was 10mtrs high for the most part, but half a metre short in one small section that we crawled through.

All to ourselves
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Then we saw what I thought would be the highlight of the trip - giant tortoises.. we were on private land and they just wander about wherever they please.  The farmers have to provide sanctuary for them, but otherwise they just look after themselves.  I saw a huge old male, some younger tortoises and a few females. I also saw a few enjoying a day spa sitting in muddy ponds.  It really was incredible to be so close and in a natural setting!

Next stop was to join our yacht (only 15 passengers and a dozen staff) and after going aboard and exploring, a few of us headed into town to join the locals for some Saturday night outside entertainment.  We sat near the water and saw all sorts of fish and rays swim by - just a hint of what was to come..

Chub chub
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We sailed during the night and upon waking found ourselves anchored off the red island of Rabida, surrounded by empty sea - our yacht contained the only people around.

We headed to the island and walked along the beach seeing lots of sea lions, pelicans and lava lizards. They were not scared of us and hardly seemed to notice us. Only the lava lizards showed any reaction, with the males doing their 'push-ups´ to show how manly they were..

After a wander up to a high point on the islands we hopped into the sea for some snorkelling.  The weather was over 30 degrees and the sun very very hot, most of us were covered in sun screen as we’d heard many  horror stories of bad sunburn from the equatorial sun..

Tortoise day spa
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I hadn’t really been snorkelling before (I did a little in the red sea, but was so scared I stuck close to the boat) but I figured it was time to get over that fear so in I jumped and I’m so glad I did.

I snorkelled along the reef formed by the lava and saw all sorts of coloured fish, star fish and corral. I got left behind a bit as I was a bit hesitant and I’m not a strong swimmer, so I found myself being taken by the hand by our guide Edwin and pulled along.  It was great being with the guide as he was a cross between Manuel from Fawlty Towers and Steve Irwin.. he was very excited about anything we saw and was great at spotting things I couldn’t.

Edwin (Irwin)
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The highlight of the entire trip then suddenly appeared which was a massive school of eagle rays swimming just in front of us.  Edwin grabbed my arm and swam off after them and we got so close (Steve Irwin close) and at that point I indicated I’d got close enough!! There would have been a hundred of them and it was so amazing to see so many rays that the water darkened and it is a vision that will remain with me for the rest of my life :-)

Other people also saw sea turtles, sharks and manta rays - but I missed them..

Talk to the flipper
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Back to the yacht for lunch and a rest and we sailed onto another island.

On this island the sand was black and there was solid black lava running into the sea, covered in marine iguanas.  They were fantastic and quite scary when they moved towards you... they were also very well camouflaged which was a bit tricky as we walked around the island along the rocks....

When we landed on the island there was no one else around and there was a mother sea lion feeding her baby and there was another baby nearby bleating for its own mother but there was no other around.  The baby tried to come up to any human that was standing alone and it was heartbreaking to watch..

Might taste nice
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We wandered along the shoreline seeing giant red crabs, iguanas, beautiful lava formations and arches over the water. When we returned to the beach we saw a large cruise ship off shore and ‘our beach’ was now covered in giant white whales...

Quote of the day (from American loudly on a bus)

"My fanny’s better than yours, it fits more in"