It felt a bit strange to lose over half of our new playmates but at least we kept the Germans, Swiss and Dutch who never failed to keep our sides splitting!! (Andrea and Markus just try to STOP us from visiting!)
So our tour continued with our new guide, Andreas, to the northern islands of the tour. In between many of the islands we sailed overnight in quite rocky seas and so we had many early nights in an attempt to stave off sea sickness. In fact I don't think we've ever gone to bed so early!!! Mind you we had very early starts every day so needed the extra sleep!
Rabida - We had a landing on a red sand beach, close to a lagoon housing some pretty pink flamingos, and then just a short walk away was a pristine white sand beach with tons of sting rays just at the waters edge. We had to wear sandles to walk along the water's edge to protect our feet from them. Also a lot of turtles peeking their heads out of the water to breathe.
Where is my mummy
Day six - Friday
Santiago - Although we didn't actually visit this island we saw how it is the most recently expanded island as it is believed there was an eruption around 1835 just after Darwin visited as the maps that were drawn during his stay clearly show 3 islands that have been swallowed up by new lava flow.
Bartolome - Is an amazing island and one of the newest. The land is virtually barren as the lava flows are relatively recent and only hardcore plants are starting the process of breaking down the rocks into soil for other plants to utilise. There is a variety of tuff cones (mini volcanic outlets) including the highest one that gives a wonderful view of the neighbouring Santiago island and a pinnacle rock which purports to be the most photographed place in the Galapagos. It also boasts a lovely dune and nice beaches with great snorkelling and where we almost caught a glimpse of a manta ray but it was scared off by a boat (grrr). Turtles and other smaller fishes were very abundant and the lovely sunset just topped off a great day.
Day seven - Saturday
Genovesa - Genovesa is just north of the equator and consists of a bizarre crater formation - the shape of a crescent moon. It is also known as the island of the birds and is the only place in the Galapagos to see red-footed boobies. Different from other boobies by being tree-dwellers, the reds aren´t quite as cute as the blues without a funny dance to entertain you. Nevertheless the snorkelling was quite cool with golden rays, eagle rays and white tip sharks being the main attractions, not to mention seeing manta rays leaping out of the water...but sadly at a distance and not close enough to actually see whilst snorkelling.
Just Chilling
Day eight - Sunday
North Seymour - Back to the landscape of the first few islands, North Seymour has this beautiful ground-covering succulent bush that has the most vivid and fiery shades of red-orange. The intense trees with their bare silvery trunks, and the prickly pear cactus made a stunning contrast and really the wildlife is a almost a distraction! Sadly we didn´t see an awful lot, only 2 land iguanas with bright orange yellow heads from a distance, but a multitude of nesting frigate birds which have black bodies and the males have a bright red chin that they inflate to attract the females - quite crazy to watch. Oh and a few more blue-footed boobies!
Look at my feet they are good...no!
Then we were dropped off at the airport and our group of Dutch, Germans, Americans, French Canadians, Kiwi, Spanish & Swiss disbanded and all went our separate ways. We had a brilliant trip and saw so many different species of birds, reptiles and fish that we've seen nature in a whole different light. We've met some lovely people and were fed pretty good grub 3 times a day. But 8 days was long enough on a boat and we were kinda glad to be back on dry land!
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