Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
We spent 7 nights on board the Mary Anne, an old two-mast sail boat. It was amazing! Just as we imagined with so many unusual animals crawling all over the islands This is definitely one of the highlights of all the travelling we have ever done. We saw iguana´s (land and marine), sea lions, giant tortoise, sea turtles, sharks, pink flamingoes, frigget birds etc etc. The photo´s tell it all! We snorkelled with a group of over a hundred dolphins, sharks, sting rays, sea lions, turtles- and none of the animals here are phased by humans. They lay on the walking trails and make you step over them. Sharks and sea turtles swim right by you. A sea lion swam right over the top of me! The volcanic islands are an amazing landscape and you can see black lava flows on the younger one´s. Sea turtles nest on the beach and we must have passed hundreds of them on the boat. The Iguana´s are amazing creatures- ancient looking, ugly but at the same time so intriguing. The sea lions and pups are so adorable. The proximity you get to all these animals is what makes Gapalapgos such a special place and its so nice to see all the conservation efforts to maintain the islands, preserving them as what is probably the most pristine and untouched islands in the world. Over half of all animals seen are endemic. We cant rave enough about this place. It´s extremely expensive but worth every penny.
