DAY 9

I had a good sleep, Shane was restless all night having nightmares. We think it may have been from the Ginea Pig because Steve had bad dreams as well. Intrepid gave us duffel bags to either use and take with us to the Galápagos or to pack with things we didn’t need and leave it in the hotel until we got back. We were up and ready to be picked up at 6am for our transfer from our hotel to Quito airport. We were given a bag of food for breakfast but it wasn’t that good, the bread was a bit stale with a little bit of ham, the strongest concentrated apriot fruit juice and a little bit of fruit.. \240so we got Johnny Rockets at the airport. Shane got a burger and I got a bacon and egg sandwich.

We arrived in the Galápagos Islands! Our tour guide, Jose was there waiting for us with a big bus to take us from the airport to our hoatel. We checked into our hostell, Shane and I had the “party room” as Jose said. We had three balcony’s, the front balcony faced the water, side balcony looked over the hostel and the back looked up over a mountain.

We went on a walking tour around the town so Jose could show us the main necessities we’d need; Atm’s, bars, supermarkets. The first beach we went to had sea lions laying all over the sand. After our walk, we picked a place to go for lunch, we tried two restaurants who firstly weren’t serving lunch yet (but had customers sitting there eating) and another that ran out of fish. Third time lucky, the place I suggested to go for lunch, the mocking bird. It was a two story open restaurant. I ordered fish for lunch, it was cooked tuna. Shane was so surprised and proud when I ordered that on my own. I thought, when in the Galápagos.. it must be good and it was! After lunch we picked up our hired snorkeling gear and went on a walk to a nice beach where the water was a bit calm to try it all out. It was an overcast breezy cool day and I was so not keen to try on my stuff. I tried my wet suit on, that was comfortable! When we made our way out, there were so many rocks and algy ehh. It took a bit but I finally got a little wet. Jose came over with a floating devise and showed me step by step to make me feel calm under the water. A little baby sea lion was playing with us, so close he wasn’t even an arms distance away. He was so playful and curious. After playing for a bit he bolted up on the sand and over to his mum for a feed. It was such merkey water, I wasn’t bothered trying anymore and it was so cold so I went and sat on the beach near the sea lions. For dinner, I ordered breaded fish.. Shanes face was priceless, two lots of seafood in one day, I was kicking goals.

DAY 10

We had the best yoghurt and granola for breakfast this morning! We went for a walking tour along the side of the island to the interpretation centre to learn the history of the ‘Enchanted Islands’. We climbed to the top of a lookout, it was a beautiful walk and the water was so clear looking from the top. We took some photos and made our way down beside a bay, it was such a nice day and we were all boiling, especially from the walk up. We all really wanted to go for a swim but Jose said we didn’t have time because we had a snorkeling tour booked for the afternoon. By the time we got back, we all had lunch and were ready for our snorkeling activity. The location we were meant to go to was pretty choppy so on the boat, Jose decided to drop us off at the Bay we originally wanted to stop off at. It was beautiful, the water was so clear. We swam with turtles and seals. I ended up staying out one of the longest, I was so proud of myself for having a good go at snorkeling. For dinner we went to a Burger place, it was soooo good. The burgers were massive! We had some drinks and cocktails before making our way back to the hotel.

DAY 11

After an early morning 6.15am breakfast, fresh scrambled eggs, a crossant with yoghurt, granola and fresh orange juice.. we took a 2.5hr boat ride to Floreana Island.

Once arriving on the island, we went for a 20 minute walk to find a nice secluded area to snorkel. We seen about 6 sea turtles and some beautiful big fish. We ventured back to the only restaurant on the island for a three course lunch. Quinoa soup for entree, chicken, rice, lentils and salad for main and fruit with coffee flavoured ice cream. After lunch we went to a black sand beach and finally had 20 minutes free time to relax. I had a nap until we needed to embark back on the rocky boat, which was another 2hrs. Shane and I took another sea sick tablet because the boat was so rocky. Luckily we did because I ended up napping most of the way

We arrived in Isla Isabela and had a walk around town where Jose showed us around the town. We chose to have dinner at Coco Surf. Shane ordered lobster and they only had the largest left so he took that one. I ordered from the kids menu, fish fingers. The menu said; Equisite Fingers of fresh fishs. Shane was so proud I’ve been choosing seafood without being forced to but I figured it is the freshest thing to eat at the Galápagos.

DAY 12

We had a bit of a sleep in today and had breakfast at 7am. After some cold scrambled eggs and a crossant, we went for a walk to find coffee but weren’t successful.. everything opens so late in South America. We all hopped on a bus back to the port (where we arrived the day before). We caught a smooth, slow boat to a little bay where everyone set up to snorkel. It was a really overcast, cold breeze day so I decided not to go snorkeling. I sat on a towel on the volcanic rock, surrounded by crabs and watched everyone snorkel away. After a little bit, it started sprinkling so Chris, one of our island tour guides, walked me back to the boat. Two sea lions swam right up to the boat and were playing with each other right next to me. Everyone was really pleased with this snorkeling spot, it was low current so there was lots of animals to see. They seen seals, fish, sea turtles, sting rays. After snorkeling Jose took us on a walk around the town to show us the best places to eat and shop. We set ourselves up at a bar with the happy hours; 4.30-6.30pm! It was a cute little hut on the beach with volley ball and a tight rope to balance on. I had 2 x caprinias!

For dinner we decided to go to the Endemic Turtle, a westernised restaurant that serviced pizzas, pastas etc. Kat and I shared a medium pizza with spicy sausage and a carbonara pasta. Yum, it was nice to have an all time favourite meal. Everyone had a few drinks at dinner. After, Shane and Steve bought a bottle of vodka and soft drink to play some drinking games, Carlotta and Pru joined us up stairs on our balcony and played a few games. After a few rules came into play we were having a good laugh, one of the rules were you having to say “Fuckin’” after every sentence! It was hilarious because Pru was a little shy and Carlotta didn’t swear much at all, it was funny in her Swiss accent.

DAY 13

Our last day on Isla Isabela we took a 45minute bus trip to the Sierra Negra Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the Galapagos and the second largest crater in the world. There is an option of taking a 17klm hike around the Rocky Mountain but there was a crack in the ground from the volcano so we weren’t able to take the long walk around. The walk up and back was just enough to get us back in time for our packed lunch.

We had free time in the afternoon so we hired some mountain bikes and went on a bike ride along the beach and then through the desert to visit the wall of tears. It was about 8klms. We didn’t bring a backpack or water and didn’t realise how long the ride was so by the time we got there, we climbed to the top of the wall and came back down, there was more stairs that took you right up the top but without water, I just couldn’t go further. Shane and I headed up to the top of a smaller lookout and took some pictures and just sat there enjoying the breeze. I lent some water off a New Zealand couple and was good to get back on the bike and head back to the happy hour shack on the beach. We all met there and one by one our group stopped by and had some drinks with us. We all went back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner on the beach. The best empaladas I have had yet! They were fresh and in a puff pastry yummm!

DAY 14

Our Engagement Anniversary! A year ago today Shane proposed.

A coincidence that this year is another early start to the day with having to be up, packed and ready to go by 6am. We took a bus tansfer from our hotel to the port. A water taxi from the port to the boat to take us to Santa Cruz. It was a 2 hr bumpy boat ride but at least it was our last one. We arrived at Santa Cruz and walked a short 2 minutes to our hotel to drop our bags and have some breakfast. I finally got to have cereal! Milo cereal and milk yumm!

We went on a walk to the Charles Darwin Research Station and learnt a lot about the conservation efforts to preserve the unique ecosystems of the Galapagos. These tortoises are being raised for the repopulation program. We seen tortoises growing from babies up until the age of 8 years old, when they are old enough to be released. We seen the preserved famous tortoise that couldn’t reproduce, George.

Lunch was included so we had a traditional Ecuadorian lunch, soup as an entree and chicken as a main, it was soaked in a herb sauce. In the afternoon we visited the higher part of the islands to observe the giant tortoises that had been released, roaming in their natural habitat. We went on a walk and seen heaps of them, some were soaking in a mud bath, some were near the lagoon and others were just munching on some grass. After that, we walked a little further on the property where they turn the Sugar Cane into a white rum. Shane, Steve and the Dr Robert all pushed a hand made machine around in a circle to squish the sugar cane and push out all of the liquid. We all took a shot glass each, filled it half way with the sugar cane juice (which was then filtered through a sivve), added a bit of lime and topped the shot off with the home made rum. It tasted a bit like Bacardi but smoother. After lining up for a few more shots, we were the last left with the locals and Jose while everyone else piled in the bus. Feeling a little tipsy we skipped to the bus and started a sing-a-long on the bus on the way back to the hotel.

We finally got back around 6pm and started getting ready for our date night, the first night we have eaten together just the two of us for a while. Shane wanted to take me somewhere nice so we went to the best in town, of course. It was a fancy water front restaurant with a wide range menu and plenty of drink options. We decided to enjoy a bottle of red on our special occassion. Shane ordered scorpian fish and I ordered a tomato, garlic, basil fetticine pasta with grilled chicken. It was beautiful. It came to $65USD, Shane gave a big tip to our waiter of $20USD for moving us to a nice table with a view and for wishing us a happy anniversary, he then tipped the restaurant $10USD. After dinner we met Kat and Steve back at the hotel on the roof top balcony for some rum and juice. We were cranking the tunes and waiting for the blood moon to appear, it was a bit cloudy so the moon only peaked out a little and we only seen a little bit of reddish colour circled around the moon.

DAY 15

We went on a 3.5klm walk to Tortuga Bay beach where we walked the length of the beach to head to the bay we had our kayak \240excursion. We seen some baby sharks and A fish jump out of the water a few times in a row, like out of the movies. We tried to spot some eagle rays and sea turtles but couldn’t spot any. After our kayak excursion, we had free time. It was about 12.30 when our hour kayaking session finished so we decided to start making our way back to our hotel to change and get some lunch. The walk back was about an hour walk and by the time we sat down for lunch it was 2pm. Kat and Steve recommended a place to eat lunch, everyone wanted Scorpian Fish so I shared one with Shane. It came out with a crispy skin that looked and tasted a little like KFC chicken. Shane and I went to a nice fancy day spa for a full body deep tissue hour long massage to celebrate our engagement a year ago. After our massage we felt amazing so we went on a big shopping spree for presents for all of our family. Dinner was paid for tonight and it was our last group dinner together. We gave Jose a card and combined tips. After dinner we went to the Bongo Bar for more drinks. I had two caprinias with dinner and two really strong caprinias at the Bongo Bar, happy hour lasted from 6-11pm so it was 2 for $10. It had good tunes and strong caprinias. After a few drinks, Shane shouted Jose some beers and we said goodbye. After that, a bit tipsy we went to the pier to watch baby sharks swim in the water.

DAY 16

Travel day

Sangria jugs in Quito nice restaurant