20th Oct - Santa Cruz, Galapagos to San Bartolome, Galapagos

Up for breakfast at 7, glad I went to bed early, feeling a lot better today. We'd travelled through the night and were now moored just off the island of Rabida.

Actually, here's a map of the Galapagos - click on it once and it goes full size. Click on it a second time and it zooms right in.

Our itinerary was to fly into Baltra, move down to Puerto Ayora, then get the boat to Rabida. From there, do a lap of Santiago from south west all the way around to the east side and stop in San Bartolome. Then back to Baltra and east coast of Santa Cruz. From there, we'd take the short journey to Santa Fe, then the long voyage to Española, over to Santa Maria (Floreana) and back to Puerto Ayora on the south part of Santa Cruz. Then the bus to Baltra airport and back to the mainland! But that's a full week away!

Alfonso filled us in on a couple of things - 95% of all Galapagos land cannot be visited by tourists. Of the rest, scientists need permits to visit. Also, the way it works for the tourists is that there are 95 official visitor sites in the Galapagos and 94 boats. Every boat must get a permit for one site every morning and one site every afternoon, although more than one boat can be at the one site. For example, there was one other boat off Rabida this morning with us.



Our boat - the Flamingo, one of the smallest in the whole of the Galapagos!

Breakfast was served and then we came ashore. First thing was to see the blue-footed boobies, birds who attack their prey (fish) by diving headfirst into the water from a pretty impressive height. Males always fish in the morning, and always in packs. Females fish in the afternoon and always alone. It takes them lots of goes to get anything so they'll usually fish all morning long.

I love the lad who tries to keep up with all his buddies but is just a couple of seconds late!





Blue-footed boobies taking a break between dives. No one knows why they have blue feet!

When we reached the shore, there were a load of sea lions who were happily lying on the beach in front of us. They were pretty much everywhere but apparently that's quite common in the Galapagos. We were immediately warned by Alfonso, the guide that touching any animals is strictly forbidden. As an example, 45% of baby seals died last yr, huge amount from being petted by humans. Seals cannot defend themselves from chemicals in the likes of perfumes, mosquito repellent and sunscreen.

Went for a walk around the island then. First we passed this cactus which used to have hard needles like normal cactii, but has evolved to change its hard needles to be soft as it has no predators here in the Galapagos and with soft needles all birds can land and spread its seed.

Cactus - all the needles were so soft. Bizarre!

The walk around the island was nice but not wholly eventful. Other than when the guide told me that he can't snorkel or dive any more as due to not wearing sunscreen for many years, he has messed up his skin and now suffers terribly if he gets in salt water. Which must be very tough on him. But also spelt disaster for me as I wanted to go snorkelling later this morning but due to my fear of water and general discomfort in it, I'd hoped the guide would come with me and help me out.

So when we got to the snorkelling area, all the lads dived in, I put on my wetsuit, flippers snorkel mask and lifejacket(!), then stared into the 15ft of abyss between me and the bottom of the ocean... and panicked! Eventually I got in and pushed away from the boat but that was a huge effort. When I then swallowed a load of salt water, I flapped around helplessly and eventually rejoined the safety of the boat! Horrible experience. But the snorkelling in the afternoon involves walking into the sea from the beach so I should have a better chance of seeing something!

Back to the Flamingo (our boat) then we sailed for a couple of hours before mooring off the west coast of Isla Santiago. I'd a nice snooze between the two!

After a lovely lunch on board, we went ashore. There was an almost full term pregnant sea lion lying in the shade. As she was completely non-aggressive, photos were taken with everyone!

Did an excellent 2 hour walk where we saw marine iguanas for the first time. Hundreds of them, all great buddies and hanging around together as it isn't mating season!

Saw pelicans diving into the water for fish, crabs, fur seals and a massive turtle swimming into a little lava lake near us. It was a great day. Then it was time to snorkel again. This time I only had to push off from the beach and I managed it! Swam into a little bit of deep water too, and then we came across 3 turtles, these lads were amazing. So chilled out and just getting on with business as I swam above them! Brilliant. Stayed for about 30 mins, then back to the boat for dinner. We had it on the move as we'd a 4 hr journey to San Bartolome where we'll see penguins in the morning!

Moored in San Bartolome at 9 - bedtime!