IWM get back to nature - The Galapagos Islands

we headed out to the galapagos islands very excited.and we had met two really cool travellers - jason and amy - who happened to be on our flight.

as soon as we arrived on baltra at the airport, the words "i want to stay here longer" were uttered.

nell and i had booked 2 days diving with Nauti Diving.
The price included 2 nights at the Grand Lobo Del Mar Hotel in Puerto Ayora.
The hotel was ok - hot water and free breakfast seems to be the only thing we really really need.

Puerto Ayora was a lot more commercial than i expected but the general impression we got was that Santa Cruz (the island) has been allowed to pretty much evolve as it is too far gone for the National Park to have any major affect.

so the diving ..... well WOW !on the first day we drove back over to the ferry spot and took a boat out to North Seymour.

we did 2 dives that day. both drift dives of the fast type !
first dive was around mosquera and we saw chocolate chip starfish, endemic blue and black nudibranchs, barracuda, schools of sardines and turtles.

then during the surface interval, nell swam with sea lions.

the second dive was an even faster drift dive - we saw sardines, white tip reef sharks and a very large black tip.

the second day we were going to gordon rocks. it is about an hour boat ride from the same ferry port on santa cruz around the eastern side of the island. at this time of year, the seas are fairly rough but IWM are hardy girls and we dont get sea sick.

we geared up for our first dive and i was nearly ready.

i have to add quickly that after an incident on the first day, i wasnt so confident with our divemaster.
he, nell and another dive went over the side of the boat before i was ready, the boat lurched and i fell over the side without my mask on right and without my regulator in.
after some coughing and spluttering, and righting myself, he then dragged me down by my fins before i was ready. once i collected myself at about 10m, we were off.
the highlight of this dive for me, aside from the 2 turtles, were the 20 (yes 20) or so hammerheads we saw.

after diving the first day, jason, amy, nell and i headed down to the Charles Darwin Research Centre. we checked out the tortoises and the land iguanas and took soo many photos !!

nell and i spent a couple of nights staying with paulie and her husband jan. paulie is a friend of nells brother nico and they opened their house to us - literally ! we now refer to casa de paulie as our six star accomodation. we had a fantastic bbq with them the night before we headed off to isabela.

the day we were due to go to isabela, we first took a walk to las grietas.

las greitas is filled with sea water and with water seeping down from the mountains. longer than an olympic sized swimming pool and deep enough for open water dive courses, its an amazing place.

for me, isabela was the highlight of our galapagos trip.

from the moment we arrived, the world seemed to slow down to a real holiday pace.

amy and jason came to isabela as well as their boat cruise had not worked out the way they planned.

isabela, and its main city puerto villamil, is a lot more sedate than santa cruz. the main street or puerto villamil is sand with palm trees waving in the breeze.

when we got off the boat, we were greeted by a naturalist guide known as sealion.
he not only offered us a ride to our accomodation, but also a free tortoise and flamingo tour (as the other people he was collecting had paid for it).

the next day, we met a local called pablo who took us to a place called las titoreras.

here we climbed over the lava to see marine iguanas, white tip sharks sleeping in an alley and then we all braved the cold water, slipped into our wetsuits and went snorkelling to see the sleeping sharks close up.day three and we had arranged with sealion to go to sierra negro - the second largest volcanic crater in the world. after a 45 minute drive, we mounted our very small horses and rode up to the volcano. after the crate, we could take a 45 minute walk to volcano chico and see the huge holes made by the eruptions, the lava flows across isabela and whilst sitting on a hill of lava, we could see the whole of isabela stretched out before us.

i really enjoyed this day - but nell and jason were basically riding ponies and both ended up with very sore butts (in one way or another).

once we got back to the hostel, sitting on the deck, the main topic of discussion and much hilarity, was how we all looked with our dust tans.

the following day - after meeting joseph in bar de beto the night before - we went snorkelling at another spot just across the harbour. it was freezing cold and none of us wanted to get in, but we did and we were rewarded with eagle rays, white coral and the most beautiful sea turtles.

we spent 4 nights on isabela in the end.

the first night we discovered that cocktails - especially mohitos - were not only classed as an endemic drink (there are a lot of endemic things on galapagos) but they are very very good for the digestive system. heres winking at you amy !

the hostel - bar de beto with its bar on the beach - as well as the people that we met and the things that we saw, isabela would be my first choice for my return trip to the galapagos.

once we got back to santa cruz, we met up with paulie again, who invited us to stay again.

amy, jason, nell and i took a walk over to tortuga bay for the afternoon. it is a 2.5km walk to the bay and then along the beach first. the entire way is paved and once you get past the beach, you are rewarded with marine iguanas, blue footed boobies and herons - as well as possibly sleeping sharks and yes - tortugas !! (sea turtles)

that night, amy and jason came over for a bbq and we all had a ball of a time and drank far more wine than we had intended.

the following day - our second to last day, we took a taxi through the highlands to another beach - but we picked the tides wrong. oh well ... we had lunch at a beautiful spot.

i have so much more to say but i cant decide whats least important to write about. i guess the only thing left to say is that if you are thinking of going to the galapagos islands - DO IT.