Galapagos fantabulous!

We have just returned from eight days of incredible animal watching and relaxation in the Galapagos Islands. Galapagos is truly like no other place on earth. It was like journeying to an alternate universe to hang out creatures who are utterly unafraid of people.

We managed to pick up a last-minute deal on a cruise round the islands the day before it started. We were on a boat with nine others - two Americans, a Canadian, two Scots, two Germans and a very enthusiastic pair of Italian birdwatchers. We arrived comparatively under-prepared (in that our camera could fit in our pocket, we owned no tripod and we couldn’t tell the difference between a woodpecker finch or a common ground finch. Admittedly, we still don’t know the difference), but our faithful little camera took some great photos, and we’ve had an amazing adventure.

If you’ve read anything about the Galapagos Islands, you will have probably seen the phrase “the animals are fearless”. But it’s not until you reach the islands that you fully comprehend what this means. The animals really didn’t care less about us, occasionally to the point of being laughable. Sometimes sticking to the designated path required stepping over sunbathing iguanas, sidling around sea lions or creeping along the edges of a blue-footed booby nest (which is a bird in case you were wondering, and yes, boob jokes abounded).

The awesome thing about the islands is that you could just sit there and watch nature unfold in front of you. It was like being on Animal Planet - you expected Morgan Freeman to start commentating at any moment. Some of our highlights were:

• Snorkeling with giant tortoises, watching them casually swim and chew on algae from a metre away.
• Seeing the pre-mating rituals of frigate birds and blue footed boobies (think a slow version of the can-can)
• Watching iguanas methodically munch their way through fruit from huge cactus trees
• Watching families of pelicans go dive-bombing for fish
• Listening to our guide, Tanya. 20 years on the Islands and she pretty much knew everything. Any guide who can make passing remarks on the occipital condyles of sea lions has our maximum respect. Not to mention that she revealed that she guided Brad and Angie around the islands when they visited in April, which increased her street cred about a million points.
• Spending the second night vomiting in the toilet or trying not to fall off the bed while going through ridiculous swells on an eight hour sail. Jess was so sick that she ended up sleeping on the bathroom floor to minimise travel time between the bed and the bathroom. OK so maybe it wasn't a highlight, but definitely memorable!

As the islands are 1000km off the coast of Ecuador, getting to them is definitely not cheap. But after a week of snorkeling with giant tortoises and chilling out alongside sea lions, we know it was money well spent. An amazingly memorable week in a truly unique part of the world. 

These dudes loved to play!

Fun in the sun

Chris presents: the rear end of a turtle

The face says it all!

Marine iguanas on their way to the sea

Chris checks out some of the local talent

Fighting the urge to ride a tortoise around the forest

Blue footed boobies. The name is a total mystery to us...

Some incredible design on the foot of a land inguana

The lady frigate birds were digging this display big time.