Galapagos Tour

Our final few days on the Galapagos were spent on a tour of some of the other islands with some other volunteers. Here´s what we got up to:

Day 1: Floreana (Santa Maria)

Floreana is one of the more southerly islands has a very checkered history with European settlers in the 1920s and 1930s disappearing in mysterious circumstances. In addition to looking around the island we did a couple of snorkels - we saw all sorts of fish, a few turtles and a white tipped reef shark. Also saw lots of bird life, including the ever amusing blue footed boobie!

At the end of the day we sailed to Isabella, the biggest island and our favourite. There are some wet lands which flamigoes visit at dusk but we only saw 1 - nevermind the sunset was stunning.

Day 2: Isabella

A trip had been organised to head to the top of Volcan Sierra Negra. We rode horses for about 1 hour - a novel experience for Petra and I. My horse was highly competitive and Petra´s was intent on squeezing between other horses only to drop back to the back and repeat! Sierra Negra has a huge 9km diameter crater. We then left the horses and walked over a volcanic landscape to Volcan Chico. The scenery was crazy and caused by eruptions in the 1940s and 1950s. The horseride back only took 30 mins as we cantered most of it - the guide was very happy as he normally barely gets to trot. Due to Petra´s horse´s insistance on being at the back she got so dusty that she ended up looking like an Oompalompa!

The day ended with an exploration of Isabella´s stunning natural harbour. We saw penguins and loads of iguanas but unfortunately shark alley didn´t live up to its name. In a brief snorkel we saw loads of turtles that we got to swim along side - made Petra very happy!

We would highly recommend Isabella and its small town of Puerto Villamil to anyone visiting the Galapagos.

Day 3: Santa Cruz

On the way to Santa Cruz we stopped for another snorkel. We swam into a cave in the rock - got increasingly spooky as the light faded and we knew that sharks hung out in there (only small ones Mum!). Outside we saw loads more fish and did see a couple of white tipped reef sharks (or same one twice?).

Puerto Ayora is the biggest town in the Galapagos and was a bit of a shock to the system. Spent the afternoon looking around the Charles Darwin Station where giant tortoises are bred. The famous lonsome George is there - the last of his type of tortoise (when he dies only 10 of the original 14 species will remain). We then headed into the highlands and walked through a huge lava tunnel. These are created by the outer section of lava setting but the inner still flowing. Gases eventually force all the liquid out leaving an empty tunnel.

Day 4: Santa Cruz

We had the morning off so went to Tortuga Bay (Turtle Bay) , which is made up of a stunning 1km long white sandy beach and then a small sheltered bay seperated from the former by a rocky outcrop and some mangrove trees. In the bay we hired kayaks and pottered around. Saw several turtles (boy can they swim fast!) and loads of sharks that we think were black tips. I had two swimming around my kayak at one point.

After lunch the others headed back to San Cristobal via Santa Fe but we stayed in Santa Cruz to catch our flight the next day.

All in all a great end to our trip and proof that you don´t have to book a tour before you go to the Galapagos.