The Enchanted Isles

It's one of the names that the Galapagos are given locally and they fully deserve it. I don't know where to begin in telling you how wonderful it was. As a start perhaps if I say that you are told to go no closer than 1.5m or 4 feet to the wildlife, but it's ok if they voluntarily come closer than that to you, as examples I have:
- a video clip of a sealion moving down the beach between members of our group
- photographs of pelicans diving into the sea to fish, landing mere inches from the heads of people snorkelling (they were incredibly accurate and never hit anyone)
- photographs of a penguin catching fish as he swooped underneath me and lots of turtles tranquilly sculling past

It is just amazing how unafraid all the animals are. One day we were looking at giant tortoises and a vermilion flycatcher came and sat on a branch nearby. I took a photo from about 3 metres away in case he flew off but I have some much closer than that because he basically held his own photo call with us no more than 1.5m away and when we moved to look at another tortoise, he came too! We quite often had to change where we were landing because some sealions had decided that the steps put in for tourists were a good place to sleep and a good place to get into the sea from.

Our boat was incredibly comfortable and the crew couldn't do enough for us, it was a bit like being royalty! We had our feet hosed down every time we came back aboard, as every effort is taken not to transfer any material, even sand, between islands. Dry towels were provided to wrap yourself in as you got out of the water after snorkelling and once back on the boat the chef and his mate would appear on deck with hot drinks and snacks. It was very luxurious. Due to our original boat having engine trouble we were upgraded to the Sagitta and the 11 of us had the run of the ship (she's normally for 16). The only difficulty sometimes was finding each other as we had a dining room, a bar, a library and the after deck saloon to sit in!

Our guide was called Fausto Rodriguez, if you´re thinking of going to the Galapagos I'd recommend him. He works for a number of companies but also leads his own tours, www.beautyexpeditions.com. He really made the trip for us with great information and always giving us a realistic assessment of what we might see. The pessimistic side of my nature used to think well perhaps when he'd tell us we'd be snorkelling with turtles or seeing giant tortoises, but he was right every time!

My favourite moment? Too hard to say but I can say that my shortlist of favourite things to watch would be:
- frigate birds following the boat, I watched them for hours, they fly effortlessly and with amazing grace
- penguins catching sardines
- turtles gliding
- eagle rays "flying" under water
- dolphins playing in the bow wave of the boat
- sealions surfing the waves off Floreana (I'm not kidding, they behave just like surfers and they're not fishing, it's for fun)

And besides all that we had beautiful sunsets, incredible geology and the most laid back mellow time. It has been the most expensive thing I've done on this trip but I wouldn't have missed it for the world, it has been a unique experience and I'd encourage everyone to save up and go.