Angermeyer Waterfront Inn Puerto Ayora

Final day on Galapagos - not much to say, but more photos to share.<br><br>We were up at 5.45 to go friggate-spotting on Batra island, seeing Great Friggates and Magnificent Friggates (no modesty here). The males inflate their bright red wattle to impress the lay-deez and we joined them right in courting season. <br><br>Galapagos (Batra ...

... look at the photos - you get a better appreciation of how close we could get. Apart from many close encounters with the aforementioned sea lions, we saw land and marine Iguanas, who delightfully, and regularly, snort salt out of their noses, all manner of birds, and of course the giant tortoises for which the islands are named.<br> As there are none of what one might call the &#8216;normal&#8217; grazing animals (goats, cows and so forth), the giant ...

... even a draw was probably good enough, and this became even more fortuitous when Peru equalized against Argentina, one of Ecuadors main rivals for the remaining world cup places, in the very last minute. Again, 60 seconds is a long time and anything can happen, which it did. In the last minute Ecuador shot at goal with a Uruguayan seemingly touching it with his arm. This would have been a penalty and given Ecuador a win and certain qualification, however as ...

... out to us. They were a dutch couple we had met when we were at themud volcano near Cartagena in Colombia. We chatted to them for a while, whilst they waited for their tour boat. They had opted to do a boat tour of the islands and were having as much fun as us.<br><br>We returned to our apartment and finished off the day with some made soup. Jody and I went to a nearby video shop, swapped a video we had for another one and went home to watch it.

... us, he looked at us inqusitively and then swam on. He returned a few times swimming right passed us checking us out.<br><br>We returned to the boat and we headed back. We got back about 4-30pm and returned to our apartment. Yesterday we had invited our landlady Rosa out to dinner at El Chocolate, and there we went about 6pm. We indulged in some wonderfully tasty Pasta dishes and despite there being five of us we still had change from $30, and that was our day.

... a lot of huge tortoises roaming free and also nearby there was a lava tunnel. El Chato was about 20km away uphill so we decided we would catch a taxi there and ride back. Here in the Galapagos taxis are trucks, our UTE&#8217;s, and it&#8217;s easy to put bikes in the back. Off we went on a 30minute ride, paying $10 for the privelage. The weather turned chilly after about 10minutes, although we had sunshine at the port there always seems to be a permanent cloud over the ...

... the boat and headed back to the port. On the way our guide, encouraged by Jody&#8217;s urge to do some fishing, put a line and hook into the water, and slowed the boat. We were quite close to some cliffs where the waves were pounding producing wave after wave of white water as the waves seemed to explode onto the cliffs. It wasn&#8217;t long before the line tightened and Carlo hauled in a huge Tuna fish of about 5kg,to Jody&#8217;s ...

... my swimwear, grabbed a mask and snorkel and gingerly stepped into the water. I put my head under the water and found that there was virtually no visibility at all. I got out, there was no way I was swimming with sharks with no visibility.<br><br>We swam in the bay where there were sea lions playing. After a while our hosts decided that they wanted to go to Las Grietas. Of course we had already been that day but were happy to tag along. Christie opted to ...

... cutting tables. Of course this attracted interested wildlife as well as tourists and locals who, not only came to buy fish but, were interested in photographing the friendly sea lions and the eager pelicans.<br><br>They were indeed cute sea lions and very tame to having their photographs taken. Jody and Niamh were enjoying sitting next to one of the young sea lions. After about 30 minutes of this fun we headed further along the harbor road towards the Charles Darwin ...

... but now they are making a comeback. The land iguana has brown color skin and slightly larger then their marine cousins.<br><br> Tonight is the farewell night that the crew and capitan toasted us with a cactus drink and a nice cake. We sat around for dinner took photos and chatted loudly, as our group of 12 turned into great friends. We traded e-mail addresses and finished our evaluations prior to heading to bed.