Galapagos Boat Trip 20-23 Sep (By Frances)

We are back in Puerto Ayora enjoying hot showers and a bedroom bigger than a closet (see photo). Our boat the Posidon was at the budget end of the scale but as Hazel mentioned at one point it was better than going with the grey American brigade that had 16 or more people per boat. Our fellow travellers were predominantly young and from Switzerland with one couple from Holland on their honeymoon. The Poseidon chugged along and we saw all the visitor sites.



The sites are strictly controlled with only designated areas for walking and definitely no touching of the animals. The tameness of the birds and sea creatures is truely amazing. The blue footed boobies look comical with their bright blue feet, the sealions bask in the sun suckling their young or frolic in the water with you. Its a good idea to avoid the territorial males who bark their way up and down the beach incessantly and are somewhat intimidating. We saw several sea turtles when snorkling as well as a meriad of colourful fish and sharks. We even stood in the shallows with sharks swimming around our feet, as you can see in the photo below. The Sea turtles were probably the highlight of the snorkling experience (and the Galapagos trip) and are so graceful.




The black and quite ugly looking marine iguanas loll around in the sun sleeping on top of each other. From our Panga (small boat) we saw sharks and a variety of rays amongst the mangrove swamps and I was pleased not to encounter the rays while snorkling. The frigate birds, with a 1.5 metre wingspan glided above the boat catching a free ride between islands. The blue boobies have an agressive group dive bomb fishing technique and are very impressive to watch.