Galapageddon!

Dear blogsters (Frank and Em writing in tandem this time),

We're back in Quito after an unbelievable few days in the Galapagos islands. We'd opted for a land-based approach (Em's potential and, as it happened, actual seasickness being a barrier to a cruise ship) so we were limited in the islands we could visit, but we still managed to see an awful lot. Here's a map if you want to chart our Beaglesque progress.

After arriving on Santa Cruz (the main island) by a convoluted series of buses and water taxis, we walked along Avenida Charles Darwin and saw a one-metre long sea iguana chilling out on the pavement. In the same area there was a fishmonger stand where a sealion and pelican waited patiently for any takings.

We spent our first few days on Isabela at a rather dingy hotel with the sullenest staff you can imagine. Our first touring encounter with wildlife was inauspicious: a flamingo with a broken wing unable to join its flock in flight. Very pathetic. But the beach that night was beautiful with black volcanic rocks and oodles of red crabs scuttling everywhere. The next day we took horses up to the largest active volcanic crater in the world (Frank's was a greedy little fellow called Canary, stopping for grass every two minutes). That afternoon, we had our first experience snorkelling and it was incredible. We saw many exotic fish and three white-tipped sharks hiding in a little coral cave. Then we found ourselves in a little lagoon full of playful sealions who circled us very closely, staring at us with big black eyes. We had to steer clear of the big male sealion who was quite protective of his territory and harem. After we came out of the water, we walked through a reserve where we saw lots of marine iguanas. They are the only type of lizard that swim and feed in cold salt water. They have to sneeze up the salt they consume and they wind up with little white heads (photos to follow). In the evening, we had a lovely evening walking on the beach with the moon and the lighthouse guiding us.

Back at Santa Cruz we wandered round the Charles Darwin Station, home of Lonesome George. The tortoises of the Galapagos are different from island to island, one of the pieces of evidence that Darwin used in the Origin of the Species, and poor Lonesome George is the last of the tortoises from Pinta Island. We got right up close to the other giant tortoises - they move surprisingly fast (so long as they're not stuck - they get wedged on their feeding platforms very easily), and make tremendous sighing sounds as they breathe (when they retract their head, it's even wooshier - they need to expel the air they're displacing by bringing their head in).
Afterwards we canoed around the bay, seeing pelicans and various birds, and snorkelled afterwards seeing 2 giant turtles which slowly disappeared into the murky depths.

We took boat tours to Santa Fe and Santa Maria islands. Unfortunately the guide could have been speaking Japanese for all we could understand him; but the snorkelling was incredible. At both islands we got to play with sealions even closer, with the little ones nibbling our fingers, and chasing us as we swam round them. Unbelievable. Around Santa Maria we saw magnificent frigate birds doing their breeding dance, puffing up their red wattles.

We have to mention the blue-footed boobies, just because they're the most comic-looking birds ever. They have light blue feet, which the males step up and down in an ungainly mating dance - if the female likes it she joins in the merriment.

Then yesterday we explored the centre of Santa Cruz Island, seeing some tortoises in their natural habitat, and wandering through freaky lava tunnels... the drip drip drip of water giving a scary soundtrack. Back in town we went for a last dinner at a lovely restaurant, Angermeyer Point, taking a water taxi each way. The views over the bay and out over the lava shore to sea were fantastic. Almost as good as the tuna sashimi.

And now we're back in Quito for a night, before flying back to Buenos Aires tomorrow to try to readjust to normal life again. A visit to the hairdressers is first on the list.

See yous all very soon,

F&Ex