Sunday 8 August 2010
Friday 6 August 2010
Boobies on show!
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
Lonesome George and friends
George is in the pic below on the front left by his pool (!)
Wednesday 4 August 2010
Iguanas, seals and sharks!
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....
Tuesday 3 August 2010
Cool kids don't sit outside
Monday 2 August 2010
Sunday 1 August 2010
Galapagos! Day 1 & 2
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)
Friday 30 July 2010
Kippers
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
We are now on our way back to Quito in order to get our flight to the Galapagos tomorrow.