Galapagos cruise

Get ready for the longest post yet...

Highlights:
- Really nice boat, crew, guide and other passengers - a real mix!
- Watching the sun rise from the top deck almost every morning and feeling incredibly lucky
- Walking along bachas beach with its white coral sand and seeing sea lions, crabs, iguanas, birds and turtle nests
- Watching sharks from the back of the boat at night - big ones the first two nights and baby ones some other nights
- Walking on mosquera island, a tiny island with more of the same animals, and also a scorpion and a whale skeleton
- Swimming with sea lions again and seeing lots of colourful fish near mosquera snorkeling
- Searching for land iguanas in the hopes of seeing one and ending up seeing about 13, including a baby!
- Cruising through the sea and watching sunset whilst seeing birds dive for food
- Getting up at 6am to catch the last hour of our sea crossing and seeing sea lions, turtles and birds, then being incredibly lucky and seeing 3 whales (1 orca very briefly, then 2 fin or sei whales) in the distance, then closer, then one swam right next to the boat feeding which was insane
- Hiking at Tagus cove across different landscapes and seeing a lake, the ocean and lava fields
- Snorkeling with penguins, flightless cormorants, turtles and fish
- Cruising to Fernandina island and watching rays jumping out of the sea and turtles bobbing their heads up from the top deck
- Walking at Espanoza point and seeing hundreds of marine iguanas (this was where the baby iguana vs snake scene was filmed!)
- We also saw sea lions, lava lizards, and crabs, and many sea birds including an oyster catcher with eggs, and learnt about rope lava, lava cactus and mangroves
- Walking on Isabela island and seeing giant tortoises plodding along, something we had hoped to see but weren't sure we would
- Being interrupted at lunch by a huge pod of dolphins riding the waves at the front of the boat and jumping along for about 20 minutes
- Going on two dinghy rides through the mangroves and seeing schools of golden rays, a spotted eagle ray, so many turtles, baby black tipped sharks, marine iguanas, as well as more penguins both swimming and on rocks
- Snorkeling with more turtles and seeing our first ever seahorse and octopus!
- Driving up into the hills of Isabela and seeing a different side to the Galapagos - farms of fruits, vegetables and animals
- We hiked up Cierra Negra and saw a lava cauldron which was really cool and perfect weather, and also a Vermilion flycatcher!
- Seeing the tortoises, from baby to adults, at the tortoise breeding centre
- Walking into the town in Isabela island and seeing some pintail ducks and one lonely flamingo!
- Walking across beautiful white coral beach on Floreana and seeing stingrays in the shallow water and turtle tracks from the nest to the sea
- Seeing around 60 flamingoes in a lake, then watching blue footed booby pairs dance, fight, and give each other gifts of stones and sticks - like watching a documentary
- The best snorkeling ever at Devil's Crown, where we saw so any different types of fish, some turtles, white tipped reef sharks, a stingray and spotted eagle ray, and 3 hammerhead sharks
- Finishing the trip with a sunrise cruise around Daphne island where a study of Darwin's finches took place

Lowlights:
- Having to take a bus, boat, bus to the meeting point for the cruise at the airport then finding the people getting the flight would be an hour later than we were told to meet which was annoying
- Leaving!

Food and drinks:
- Buffet breakfast, lunch, and dinner - all delicious and we ate as much as we could!
- Snacks after morning excursion and afternoon excursion, and a different hot drink every day after snorkeling
- We learnt how to make ceviche which was a fun experience

PS photos are of all GalapagosRead more