Sharks!
Trip Start
Mar 25, 2007
1
51
72
Trip End
Feb 16, 2008
Puerta Ayora, Galapagos,
Ecuador
Friday, October 26, 2007
Well as you can see we have made it to the Galapagos Islands!
We spent a couple of days in Quito, didnīt see much except the inside of an irish pub where we enjoyed seeing South Africa beat England in the Rugby! We booked a boat trip for the Galapagos starting tomorrow, we have heard mixed reports about the boat we are going on, but it was relatively cheap, and we are going in with low expectations so hopefully canīt be disappointed.
We flew to the islands on sunday, and struggled to find somewhere to stay as no one seemed to be around at any of the hotels, and if they were it was really expensive
Galapagos Hawk
! TipĻdonīt arrive on a sunday afternoon! We found somewhere eventually (cold showers, but relatively cheap) and then set out to fill in our next couple of days on the island before we got on the boat.We decided to head to Isabella island (the big one in the west), and got a speed boat ovcer at 2 in the afternoon, we had booked a tour but werenīt expecting much, but they picked us up from the boat and took us straight to the Giant Tortoise centre, then to see the Flamingos then to the restaurant for the usual chicken and rice meal (with sauce though so all good). The next day was an early start, they picked us up to take us up the volcano, where we met our horses, who plodded us up to the crater. The last eruption on the island was in 1998, so there are some very recent lava rivers and an awesome moon like landscape. The horses were a bit more willing to run on the way home, and we headed out to a little lava island, where we saw our first giant Iganas (we had seen plenty before, but only the little ones!) and white tipped sharks sleeping in the warm waters. Then we headed into an inlet for some snorkelling, where in water about 1 metre deep we were sharing with white tipped sharks (harmless), sea lions, sting rays and numerous other types of fish! Was awesome with so much to see in a very small space! and very hard to beat.
Hamish´s mighty steed
Yesterday we headed back to Santa Cruz (the main island) and walked out to Tortuga bay (turtle in spanish), an awesome white sand bay but with no swimming due to the strong currents, but we could see green turtles in the waves. They are sitting out there at the moment as it is time for them to lay their eggs so they were waiting to come in at night.... the next bay round had plenty of Iguanas, and one very photogenic blue footed boobie! as well as lots of white tipped sharks, but very little visability so we just stood and watched them instead of swimming with them!
Today we went diving, we saw a sea lion playing just as we went down, a couple of hammerhead sharks, a couple of turtles as well as plenty of awesome marine life! Hamish did 2 dives, but i only did the one - one was enough, the sea was very rough (diving off the boat) and the current very strong - an awesome experience but very hard work!
So tomorrow we get on our boat, hopefully we make it round lots of islands and see the rest of the animals we havenīt encountered yet!
Hope you are all well
Katie and Hamish
