Wow what a day! We had an early start to the day to catch the plane to the Galapagos Islands via Guayaquil; then a short ride on a bus to catch the boat. You should have seen my face when I realised I was expected to clamber into a dinghy with the waves going up and down and up and down and up and down! It was very very scary!
The cabin is quite nice and seems a wee bit of luxury after the Amazon boat except its back to no paper down the loo! We have hot water via a button you need to keep on pushing.
That all took care of the morning – in the afternoon we cruised to Lobos Island and had our first excursion to Ochoa Beach where you could swim and snorkel with the sea lions. For those of us who did not want to snorkel we sat on the beach trying to avoid being too close to them but that was hard as they were really curious – well some were as others just fell asleep almost at your feet.
George went into the water for the first time in over a year and said that swimming with them was just amazing as they were really playful and would blow bubbles in your face. You did have to be careful of the big bulls though who were very protective and really protested if you came too close. We had piled up our life jackets on the sand and because they were bright colours they attracted one of the sea lions but one of the straps got tangled around his neck and he became quite distressed. The other sea lions were responding to his cries and were trying to get the jacket off him but it took Luis (our guide) to manage to trap the strap and kick it off him – it was a bit risky as the bulls were very close and very agitated.
Back on board the boat we had a bit of excitement when one of the downstairs cabins filled with smoke – an o ring had overheated but no-one was hurt. Dinner was a bit hilarious as George tried to explain that I didn’t eat fish – this was misunderstood to be I wanted fish every night! Luckily this was sorted out.
A 7am wake up call and great adventures in store for me trying to get in and out of that bloody dinghy!
