Santa Fe, South Plaza & Seymour Islands

Sealions on Santa Fe

View more photos 

After breakfast we took the pangas to the shore of Santa Fe, from where we went for a short walk - to find some land iguanas - passing lots of sealions en route. We were lucky enough to find resident land iguana Dino (although not sure you can tell the difference between them really!), & watched him eating cactus fruits.

After our walk we went for a snorkel off the back of the boat. Because there were a lot of male sealions (bulls) on the beach, we weren't allowed to snorkel too near to the beach in case they attacked us - quite a scary thought considering they weigh up to 400 pounds! We had a wonderful snorkel - managing to see a couple of rays as well as THREE turtles. Yippeeeeeeeeeee :o)  There was this rock out in the sea & I wanted to go & see what was around it. I snorkelled over with Annie & Viviene & we found a group of turtles resting there. Fantastic! They all started to swim away, but one was fairly chilled out about it & let us follow it for ages. Unfortunately I'd run out of film on my underwater camera, but yet again Annie got some good shots which she's going to let me have a copy of :o)

South Plaza Island

View more photos 

After lunch we sailed onto South Plaza Island where we went for another short hike. The landscape is incredible, with lots of big cactus trees. We were able to see a tropicbird & egg, a sealion bachelor colony (though not many bulls there at the time), as well as a 2-week old sealion pup. Bless!!! However, it was extremely hot, so I was very grateful when Gino announced that it was time to head back to the boat & into the sea for one final swim, if we so wished. Did I ever?!

Next we set off towards Seymour - our final island of the trip. Boohoohoo. Oh how quickly the week was flying by :o(  However, most excitingly, whilst on our way there, we were joined by a pod of pilot whales. Soooooooo fantastic. I couldn't believe our luck!! I've been on a number of whale-watching tours in the past & struggled to see anything at all, & here we were surrounded by some. They stayed with us for a good 10-15 minutes & then, like the dolphins last night, disappeared as quickly as they'd arrived.

Pilot whales!!!

View more photos 

That night it was the final night of our cruise :o(  It was such a fantastic week in every way that I really didn't want to leave. Walter had made us a lovely cake, as it was our last dinner, after which the festivities commenced - cocktails & dancing. I had great fun acting as barmaid for an hour or so, making everyone nice strong cocktails. Then we had the chance to do some salsa dancing with the crew members - some of whom were great dancers. A great laugh had by all. Finally passed out in the early hours of the morning, a very contented little tourist :o)