GALAPAGOS

I spent a wonderful week on a Galapagos cruise. I flew direct from Quito to Baltra on Fri 14th.
I and some others were met by the crew from Golondrina, a lovely 70 foot motorised yacht. In all, there were 16 passengers. I shared a cabin with a young woman, Nina, from Denmark. we had our own bathroom which was very convenient. For the whole week I enjoyed superb meals. I met a great group of people although half of them left after 4 days and another bunch of equally nice people joined the boat.
Our 1st visit on fri afternoon was Bachus beach,  prev a WW11 site manned by the U.S. It was so exciting to see our 1st sealions, marine iguanas and seabirds. Later on we went snorkelling and were treated to an array of tropical fish (sorry don´t have my diary so can´t tell you their names....).
On fri night we sailed to Genovesa and awoke in the morning  (Sat) to find ourselves in a bay that was previously a volcanic crater.
Visiting the Galapagos is like being at the dawn of time - seeing old volcanoes (and not so old...) and seeing species that evolved in this unique environment (altho galapagos is relatively young compared to the age of the earth). On Genovesa we saw nesting red-footed boobies - they nest in trees whereas other boobies nest on the ground. We also saw the amazing male great frigates who have a red ballon like pouch in their necks in the breeding season - what the male of the species does to attract attention!
On Genoves and other islands we we saw the white or masked booby. They outnumber the blue and red-footed boobies.
Overnight we sailed and in the morning found ourselves at Bartolome with the wondrous site of Pinnacle rock.
I have lost track of the sequence of events but we visited a number of islands, each one different. I loved the dance of the blue boobies - they both shuffle about in a courting dance and the male bows and whistles (guys, why can´t you be more like birds?). We could not get enough of the sea-lions - they lie on the beach undisturbed and grunt and bark and socilaise. the pups crawl about in search of mum who is usually out fishing. They remind me of dogs. Of course, you are not allowed to touch them.
Occasionally, when we were snorkelling we were joined by some curious sealions. as long as it was no the alpha male, you were okay. He usually patrols the territory protecting the large family.
We had several snorkels, sometimes 2 a day. These were awesome - I did see some parrot fish, angel fish, moor fish, trumpet fish, white selma -sometimes huge schools of fish. Once or twice i saw a white tipped shark - we would call out "shark" and the other snorkellers woulñd swim over, not away. It was great on 2 occasions seeing turtles in the water. we aslo saw golden rays and the spotty eagle-faced ray. One of the best snorkels was in the devil´s Cauldron (?Española) - lovely clear water and swimming over the old crater.
I had fun with the other passenegers on board, among them, a number of people from the U.k. Hopefully we will get together later in the year.
It was such a full 7 days and I was reluctant to leave .. but as they say, all good things come to an end...