Galapagos...yum, yum, yum

Amongst great dilemmas about how to get to Galapagos cheaply, unnecessary stressing (Reynolds style) whether I should be going or not or got a serious grip and got myself onto a very straightforward and to be honest, rather dull, bus journey to Guayaquill....otherwise known as the hottest and most scary city that I have been to. I arrived oblivious to these things, got off the bus and nearly passed out with the humidity and went off to find a cab. Was safely taken to the hostel, which was in the nicest area of the city and was still covered in burglar bars and barbed wire.

Had a good chat with the owner who could arrange Galapagos trips, got totally confused about what to do, which boat to go on, which islands to visit and started re stressing cos had no idea what was supposed to be doing (Reynolds style...how I manage to travel alone is beyond me), so decided to go out for a walk and a think. Quite frankly was terrified to leave the place, but hid 40 dollars in my bra and went off to the mall for the air conditioning and the security guards.

Two steps at a time and sweat pouring off me. Anyway, wandered around the mall and went back to the hostel for a shower. As was taking clothes off in the bathroom nearly had a heart attack as I saw something crawling up my boobs, only to realise it was the 40 dollars I had hidden there earlier. Too many nerves, too paranoid, too indecisive ;).

Finally (and this was after much deliberation and mind changing) thought would go for the tourist superior class boat to the north islands of the Galapagos and went to book it. Met lovely Fran and Ross who (woohoo) also decided to go on the same boat and all was looking up until we found out we had to pay for the trips in cash....having to withdraw 1000 USD in the most dangerous city in the world. Needless to say was filled with horror, but Fran and Ross came too and between us we managed it one way or the other without being mugged, murdered or developing severe anxiety attacks.

Although my trip didnt start for a couple of days, I took the first flight out the next morning, planning to stay on the island for a night beforehand. Was lucky again and met a gorgeous Irish girl, Barbara. Found a nice hostel, had lunch and then we walked to Tortuga Bay where sea iguanas are chilling out on the beach and the sand is like white powder and the sea is turquoise blue and, well, what more can I say? In the evening we had dinner, fun chats and then went to a cool Ecuadorian jamming session. Had to get up early the next day, managed a few cuba libres ;) and agreed to meet up with Barbara for her birthday celebrations when we both got back from our cruises.

Well I could go into so much detail in between, but lets say arrived back at the airport to meet the guide and Fran and Ross. On the boat over to the airport was a sweaty, overweight, rather lecherous man who did a bit of eye grooming of me and made me feel a little queasy....so you can imagine my delight when, who was our guide?!!!! Yes! The delightful sweaty scenario I had encountered on the boat. Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather....I tried not to look horrified, and we all headed off to the cruise.

The boat was decent, I had my own cabin, which was great, and we all had the loveliest time, despite the fat, sweaty excuse for a guide, who, rather unsurprisingly, turned out to be lazy and useless.

However, the Galapagos are glorious and the people on the boat were all lovely and despite me spending the first night projectile vomiting (the cause of which is still a mystery to me - it was like something out of the Exorcist, thank god I had my own cabin) I had an amazing time.

The first night we had a black tip reef shark circling our boat and things just got better and better from there.

The animals on the islands are as fearless as everyone says, you can get right up close to them and they barely flinch. A truly amazing moment was when we went snorkelling and a young seal started playing with me and chasing me and trying to steal my flippers (there is picture evidence which I will try to post up), such a treat! Then blue footed boobies, more iguanas, more seals, finches, turtles, parrot fish, lizards, frigates and more and more and more.

Was quite sad to leave the boat (my trip was 4 days) but the guide was seriously cocking me off by then and Fran and Ross were leaving too, so we spent our last day seeing the giant tortoises (whose size and age really is quite staggering) and trudging through mud and lava tunnels and then checked into our hostel. Went out for some serious misbehaving and dancing with Fran and Ross to the only disco on the island and had such fun and was glad to be back on solid ground.

Needless to say was fragile the next day, but took myself off, in the seering heat, to some canyon that was very beautful, but difficult to walk to when still pissed and nearly killed self walking over the rocks in flipflops, but with hindsight was worth it....and then went back to Tortuga Bay, another marathon walk, during which I thought I might die.....honestly thought I was still on the boat, path was swaying and so was I....but bumped into Fran and Ross on the beach and had a giggle as inadvertently poisoned Ross with my lukewarm water which quickly regurgitated itself into the turquoise sea (sorry Ross ;)).

To be continued.....this blogging is tiring :)