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jamesandanna12 · 7 years

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Galapagos Islands (Ecuador) - 10 - 20 May 2017

We always wanted to visit the Galapagos islands... This was never an easy option from the UK due to distance and sky-high prices. As we were already in Ecuador, it was the perfect opportunity ☺

Most people visit the Galapagos islands by air and then take a boat cruise for 4-10 days. These cruises are very expensive. We did a lot of research on the subject and decided that by doing a cheap ish cruise for a week (still several thousands of £) we would spend an absolute fortune and wouldn't be comfortable on the boat at all. So we decided to do everything ourselves. It was a fantastic idea!! 😀

We booked our flights to the airport on the small island of Baltra with a return for 10-days later.

We arrived in the Galapagos and were greeted with fantastic hot weather! It made a nice change from all the cold mountain places including Quito.

We got off the plane and onto a boat, which took us to a bus. After 45 minutes on the bus, we arrived in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz island - the main town in the Galapagos.

We arrived in our pre-booked guesthouse.

Comfy bed and air-conditioning - that's all we needed ☺

By the time we checked in, it was starting to get dark. We walked around, saw our first sea lion, found supper (rice, beans and fish) and admired the view of the harbour.

The following day we went exploring ☺ First stop, a little beach.

Then, Las Grietas for snorkeling. James liked it, I... Not so much. It was terribly deep and claustrophobic.

We decided to walk to Tortuga Bay - an hour's walk through lovely surroundings.

The beach was stunning!

We walked through hundreds of marine iguanas 😀

Swimming was fantastic! It was warm and calm - so relaxing!! 😍

In the evening we went to the pier where the lazy sea lions would entertain us 😉

The following morning we visited Charles Darwin Research Station.

We saw dozens of giant tortoises.

We also saw land iguanas - so different to all the marine iguanas we see everywhere.

The Galapagos tortoises with different shell and neck were lovely and curious.

There was a great display explaining the story of Lonesome George, the last giant Pinta tortoise who survived up to 2012.

Afterwards we went back to Tortuga Bay - sooo gorgeous!!

We had a very lazy time swimming, floating and sunning ourselves 😁

We wanted to visit one or two other islands so we decided to go to Isabela island the following morning. It was a 7am sailing but since we had to be there at 6.30am, we had to get up at the ungodly hour of 5.30am! 😕 Whilst waiting to get on our speed boat we saw a lovely sunrise 😊

It was a rough two and a half hours! The speedboat was 'flying' and not slowing down for even huge waves! We had to concentrate hard in order not to get ill...

We arrived in Isabela island at 9.30am and walked around for an hour and a half looking for accommodation. I went to see half a dozen hotels and they were either ridiculously expensive for what you got or horribly dirty 😲 Eventually I found a lovely simple guesthouse with a spotless bathroom, comfy bed and great air-conditioning ☺

Plus a fantastic view from the window! 😁

Walking around the town was like a step back in time. All the roads were made of sand 😊

We heard of a snorkeling spot called Perla Concha, just a 20minute walk from our hotel, so we went to check it out. We were greeted by the usual beasties 😀

The water was lovely and warm. But as it was mid-afternoon, the underwater visibility wasn't the greatest. We decided to return in the morning some other day.

The next day we rented bicycles and went riding 😊 It was unbelievably hot hence the incredibly fashionable hats under the helmets 😉😂

We cycled mostly on volcanic ash and sandy paths. The vegetation was very harsh and impenetrable.

We hoped to see a giant tortoise in the wild... We saw promising signs but no tortoises... 😉

After 12km cycle we reached The Wall of Tears. It was constructed by prisoners who were brought to the island to create a penal colony in the 1950s. The site’s appropriate name has to do with the sweat and tears that went into the wall’s construction, working all day in the hot sun, walking long distances, carrying heavy volcanic rocks, and being severely punished, with many prisoners dying. The saying went “Here the strong cry and the weak die.”

With great irony, the wall had no purpose whatsoever. It was merely a punishment.

It was a hot cycle back to town. We kept stopping for tiny bits of shade.

Still on a lookout for giant tortoises James stopped suddenly causing me to swerve a little haha! He spotted a giant tortoise!!! We were delighted 😀

We watched it for a while but it was so hot, we had to keep going. Amazingly, I then spotted two more giant tortoises! What a treat to see them in the wild. The Galapagos islands really are incredible! 💖

We loved walking around the rugged coastline spotting marine iguanas, giant crabs and all the other creatures big and small ☺

How many iguanas can you see? 😉

Pelicans kept us entertained too! They are always hungry and there's nothing better than swimming whilst watching them dive around you for fish!

In the evenings the local men played volleyball in the nicest setting.

We booked ourselves on a snorkeling day trip to Los Tuneles - it was fantastic!

The lava tunnels were beautiful!

We saw many gorgeous turtles swimming all around us ☺

Blue-footed boobies were everywhere too ☺

It was absolutely gorgeous!

We saw many gorgeous, inaccessible beaches - shame we weren't allowed to enter them.

Snorkeling was fantastic! We saw lots of giant turtles which we absolutely adore! It was so amazing to be that close to these gorgeous creatures! Two giant turtles, the size of a large kitchen table for six, swam with us ☺ They were within half a metre of us. They weren't scared at all - they seemed happy to have us near them. It really was amazing! 💖💖

The fish were lovely and colourful .

We also saw lots of sharks which we don't like so much but it's still great to see them. They were sleeping which made us happy 😉

Another incredible thing we did was swimming and snorkeling with baby sea lions! They were playful and curious and one really liked James for some reason! 😉 The baby sea lion came so close to James that he could feel the soft whiskers of the sea lion on his face 😀

Back on land, we had late lunch in our usual local spot.

Another day we went back to Concha Perla in the morning... It was a brilliant idea as what we saw, we would only see on National Geographic channel!! We saw a Galapagos penguin swimming around and catching fish! There was a large school of thousands of small fish so the penguin was in luck! 😉 He swam all around us and with our snorkeling masks we could see him chasing fish underneath us! After watching him for half an hour or so, three other penguins turned up!!! What a show!! We were in the middle of them chasing fish - it was absolutely amazing!! We snorkelled with the four lovely penguins for well over two hours 😀😀😀

Here's me snorkeling beautifully 😂

It was incredible to be so close to these amazing animals and watch them in their natural habitat. We were very lucky to be there at the right time ☺

Later on we sat on the beach and watched the world go by. It was very peaceful!

We watched the sunset, had a few beers and stayed in the little beach bar listening to the sea until it got dark ☺ It was our last evening on Isabela island.

After another rough speedboat journey, we got back to Puerto Ayora. This boat trip was even rougher than the first one so we needed a few hours to calm down 😵

We went to see the fish market. The best one we've ever seen (because of the birds and animals!!)

We saw a very sexy cruise ship - with its own helicopter - that's another way to see the Galapagos haha 😉

As we had another day, we decided to do a boat trip around an island near Puerto Ayora. It was lovely and relaxing as it was only us and four others.

After the boat trip I couldn't resist one more swim in Tortuga Bay! We went via town, had coffee and walked an hour to get there.

It really is the most amazing beach, isn't it?! 💖

One last photo with the sign - "L" was a very comfy place to sit! 😉

Our last evening in the Galapagos - sipping margaritas 😉

The following morning we took a taxi, bus and a boat back to the airport.

We had a wonderful time in the Galapagos islands! It is an incredible place full of wildlife and it's definitely a place we would return to in a heartbeat! 💖

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