Santiago and Rabida Islands

After a really early breakfast of pancakes and maple syrup at 6:45am we headed to the shore of Santiago island. As we landed we saw a couple of blue footed boobies and 2 tiny Galapagos penguins (duck size), which are fairly rare on this island so we were very happy. We walked onto the island which is a barren area of lava flows which occurred only 110 years ago so there is very little life - only tiny lava lizards, grasshoppers, and the first colonising plants are just getting a grip on the place. A completely awesome and surreal place - there are giant fissures everywhere and it really looks like fresh lava.

Then we hurried back to don our snorkel gear before the penguins disappeared. We needn't have worried, there were about 10 that stuck around a while, swimming like torpedos around us trying to catch fish - very cute! It was great visibility and I spotted a white tip reef shark that I followed for a while (other people saw him around later too), hundreds of fish, a cushion starfish, sea cucumber, flatfish, parrotfish and one that looked like a triggerfish. Towards the end, I went deeper to look for sharks and spotted a turtle. I called over Anna and Lisbeth followed (everybody else had got out) and we watched the turtle swimming along, eating and coming up for air for ages - absolutely beautiful!!! I got some great photos and emerged very happy - yesterday was supposed to be the best day according to our guide but the birds bored me after a while. I could never get tired of looking at marine animals!

We sunbathed on the top deck as we sailed for two hours to Rabida island.

After lunch we went ashore, past 'lake malaria' per George and found the Galapagos hawk. The red sand contrasted beautifully with the cactus (soft spined due to no predators) and turquoise sea - again reminding me of Monkey Mia in Oz.

We put on our snorkelling gear and were dropped by the boats round the corner and swam back to the shore. It was wavy and poor viz but we did manage to see a Galapagos shark (relative of tiger shark), a sea lion that didn't stop to play, lots of fish and tons of starfish. Emma had a close encounter with a manta ray which freaked her out but nobody else saw it. Reboarding the boats on the wavy shore resulted in a lot of laughs and bruises.

I lay on deck as we sailed the 3 hours to Baltra but it was windy so I went to bed for a nap. Some of the others saw dolphins. After dinner I went to bed early as I was feeling rough from my cold.Read more