Bing Bong!

Just landed. Prepare for dirty students and washing.

Boobies on show!

Today was our last complete day on Galapagos, we visited North Seymour Island today which is the largest bird colony in the group of islands.

We were able to just quietly walk through the rocks and these beautiful creatures just carried on with their business as if we weren't even there.

Later today we managed a final snorkelling trip where sharks, a ray and many fish were spied.

After that it was back for showers and tea - the biggest tea for some of the entire trip; Jess and Cath destroyed the following in about 30 minutes flat:

1 quarter pounder hamburger (each)
1 plate of sausage and mash (mash appears to mean chips)
1 pizza between two

If you hear an explosion in the night, you will know what has happened.

Tomorrow we are off for a quick hike then on to the airport 8-(

Most trips end with some sort of discussion about what people would most like to eat when they return home, If you are a keen parent, perhaps you can indulge your teenager the following:

Ross - Chinese takeaway
Matt - sausage and mash with gravy
Joe & Rosie - whatever is on the table
Tilly - um.. McDonalds
Rhiannon - um.. Apple crumble and cold custard
Catherine - Lasagne
Jess - Beans on toast
Nat - tuna steaks (posh!)
Charlotte - Profiteroles
Pip - Cheese and onion pasty (she is cooking )
Milly - Indian!
Becky - Indian
Louise - Lasagne and pudding
James - Steak and Stilton pie

(not sure you will be so sure when you see their washing pile!!)

A normal picture of Pip

As someone commented that there were 'no normal pictures of pip' here is one we took earlier yesterday. Now we don't usually single out students like this but she reluctantly allowed us to photograph her at the tortoise sanctuary where she was able to spend a few hours with her own kind, and without her usual human disguise:

Lonesome George and friends

Today we visited the Charles Darwin research centre on the island, which among other things, is home to lonesome George who has two or three female companions but still no inclination to make babies. Diego on the other hand is the male who has repopulated Espanola island from 14 to 1000 single handedly (tortoises don't have hands, but we won't say anymore as young people may be reading this) anyway he looked well ummmm exhausted to be honest!

George is in the pic below on the front left by his pool (!)

Iguanas, seals and sharks!

Day, um 3&4 and 5? We are beginning to loose track of the days, never mind.

So day 3 we saw penguins on the beach, some went to see the pirates cave (just a cave sadly, no pirates Ian) plus we spotted marine iguanas

Day 4 yesterday was all about changing the plans, as we were scheduled to hike to a crater but it was foggy and instead we went to tortoise breeding centre, and spotted flamingoes at another lagoon. Plus we
Went snorkelling, and Becky (who can't swim) went too (with a little assistance from kay and her friends .. We are all so proud of her.

Day 5 , today is the day we depart for santa cruz island (our last island hop in the big speedboat ) but not before we did some more snorkelling this time down a narrow gap between the rocks where white tipped reef sharks come to rest - they were literally a few meters below us ... Wow - and Mart's waterproof camera decided to run out of battery, so no pic 8-( boo

More later perhaps if we can find some speeeedy connection somewhere.

Hi to Sabine, we loved your comment - we are also missing you, and we'd like to ask the person who wanted a 'normal' picture of pip what they actually meant???? Wasn't the last group photo normal?

Meanwhile here is a little baby sea lion pup that followed us on our walk today....

From an Isabella viewpoint

Cool kids don't sit outside

It is cool to sit outside at the back of the boat unless we are travelling quite fast, as Rosie found out....

Maybe a photo?

Perhaps this will post - saw these today!

Galapagos! Day 1 & 2

Well, we thought we had better post something, in case you had forgotten about us!

My goodness, what a fun packed two days we have had so far.

First we flew in to San Cristobal island, and visited the Galapagos visitors centre, followed by a snorkelling lesson in one of the sheltered bays of the island. This was aided (and hindered at the same time) by two baby seals, plus a very protective parent who decided to perch on the steps we were using to get in and out - so much so that becky, James and Kay couldn't actually get into the water! Hum.

Very shortly afterwards the peace and quiet (sarcasm) was broken by a shriek from tilly who seems to have a bottom that is attractive to baby sealions, later we snorkelled again at the nearby beach met more sealions and watched the sun set.

Today we set forth in the fastest speedboat on the island (petrolheads will need to know at this point that we had 3 200bhp outboards almost flat out) we visited a small rock island and saw nesting boobies! and did some boat based drift snorkelling. The group again encountered a some sea-lions and we played with one in the shallows for about 30 minutes, where *most* people conquered their fears of baby sea-lions wanting to play. Catherine had extra attention from one which managed to unzip the back of her wetsuit!

Later we visited another crater lake, where Martyn and kay's fog curse struck - we were unable to see anything for the fog 8-(

Phew, I'm exhausted writing this....

Even later we jumped on mountain bikes and cycled from the crater lake to the tortoise sanctuary where we met several of the local tortoises who frankly weren't that interested in us. They also breed then here, and there were some baby ones, about 4 inches across.

Now after all that we are off back to our very posh hotel (with pool!) for a mud removal session in the showers and then some dinner.

We are off to another island tomorrow - Floreana

(sorry no pics today, movistar are not giving us much cellular love on the island and we have veeeerrryyy slooow GPRS only)

Kippers

Well that crater lake walk certainly wore us all out! Just about everyone slept on the bus!

Just had a cracking mongolian meal tonight and are off to Galapagos tomorrow! Woo.

Not entirely sure about the phone signal there we will have to see.

Laguna Cuicocha

After a visit to Otovalo Markets, where much money was spent, and many bargains were negotiated (Tilly and Louise even took on the role of personal shoppers after allegedly memorising the layout of all the stalls), it was onward to another spectacular crater lake. This one actually has an island in the middle. We scorned the boat ride and opted instead to hike around the entire lake! Phew. Took us 4 hours however.

We are now on our way back to Quito in order to get our flight to the Galapagos tomorrow.