Playing with sea lions

Now, we could probably write about 10 posts about the past week that we spent at the Galapagos, but we will try to refrain and stick to the highlights.  It was one of the most amazing experiences ever.  

We had obviously heard a lot about the Galapagos and were looking forward to being so close to wild animals, but we had not heard about the snorkeling.  We swam with penguins, sharks, turtles (both green sea turtles and a hawksbill turtle), but the highlight was the sea lions.  We got to swim with them and play with them and be tickled by their whiskers.  The first time they appeared in the water I got such a fright as they are so fast and come so close to check you out - they appear out of nowhere half the time.  At one point I had four sea lions surrounding me and playing with me, whilst Jason had another one chasing the bubbles of his snorkel and mouthing the end of it.    We would try and show off our underwater acrobatic skills whilst they watched and they would respond with a dazzling display and then stop and look at us as if to say 'well, beat that then'.

On land we saw magnificent frigate birds with their red balloons all puffed up, marine iguanas in all sorts of different sizes and colours, bright yellow land iguanas, blue footed boobies dancing as they courted each other, nazca boobies, beautiful waved albatrosses nursing their eggs and landing with difficulty,  penguins sheltering under cactus trees on the equator and lots more.  Then there was the scenery - volcanoes everywhere you looked.  The galapagos was formed by a hot spot and as the nazca plate that it sits on moves towards the mainland the islands shift over and get lower and newer islands are created.  Shortly before we arrived Fernandina which is directly over the hotspot had erupted (unfortunately we were not able to get over there to see it).   The land is almost all hard lava which plants have managed to find a foothold on.  There are the 'aa' lava flows and the other smooth lava flows with craters in every direction.   

There was the giant tortoise breeding centre with 'lonesome George' who is the last of his species in the world, but does have two girlfriends of a similar species so he's not so lonesome anymore.  The post barrel that was started a couple of hundred years ago where sailors used to leave post and take that labeled wherever they were heading.  Tourists now leave postcards and take others with the idea being that you should hand deliver them.  We have one for someone in Croydon so it will be a very slow postal service that they receive.  

We had decided to splurge on one of the nicer boats as it was having an excellent deal so we spent a week on the very comfortable Nemo II.  On arrival we were greeted with banana milkshakes and garlic bread whilst we got to know the other passengers.  This was to set the tone for the entire week.  Food, food and more food.  Three buffet meals a day with snacks for morning and afternoon tea.   So we had an amazing experience in unparalleled luxury and now have to return to being backpackers worrying about bedbugs and whether this cheap dodgy meal with give us a bout of food poisoning or not.   

I should also quickly mention the people that we shared the trip with.  They were all wonderful (and yes, I gave out the address for the blog)... but really, wonderful people.   They ranged from other backpackers to a couple in their 70s (he had his 79th birthday on the trip) who ran marathons and competed in triathlons.  The crew were also marvellous and made the trip memorable.  Joining in as we followed huge pods of melon-headed whales, pilot whales and dolphins.