the galapagos experiance

The 24 volcanic islands that make up the Galapagos islands are our last land experience before the big south pacific crossing & wow what an experience! Time was divided between just 2 of the islands - Santa Cruz & Isabella. Santa Cruz is the most populated of the islands & the quaint town of Puerto Ayora was a dream. More facilities than the guide books lead you to believe..I was in Suzi heaven, fresh sushi, loads of fab ice cream! Yes I know the animals were why we were there but being able to restock our supplies & have a few treats was a bonus!
A days sail across to Puerto Villamil on Isabella with our guests. Its a sleepy laid back town with sand roads & where they use a bulldozer to keep the sandy roads level! Sleepy is good unless you need things done. Slight nightmare as our guests water taxi failed to arrive therefore missing their ferry back to Santa Cruz. As always money speaks & they managed to charter their own boat back. They were good sports & adapted well to life on Barraveigh. Great time had by all I hope - I certainly loved all my goodies from home..cream eggs yummy!
On both islands we saw spectacular wildlife. We didn't even have to leave the boat, sealions, penguins, iguanas & black tipped reef sharks swam by daily. We saw the huge tortoises that are so old its possible that some of them were around when Darwin explored the islands, blue footed boobies that dive bomb into the sea dropping out the sky like fighter jets - why has evolution given them blue feet? I couldn't tell you but they are very comical & look like they have stepped in wet paint! The cute award has to go to the sea lions & penguins, both appear to be good friends as they play & even work together to catch their dinner. Watching them swim around the boat was a sight I never got bored with. We snorkeled with turtles & families of rays. We kayaked through waterways created by solidified lava & home to white tipped sharks that were bigger than me - not somewhere I wanted to start practicing my 360 degree kayak roll!
The islands were a great experience & I hope that as tourism sours they are able to keep the human footprint to a minimum.