Galapagos Islands...

We left Cocos Island and headed to the Galapagos Islands - crossing the equator on the way!
Newbies who haven't crossed the equator are called "pollywogs" and after their initiation - and abuse! - they are called "shellbacks"

So after the equator crossing, we pulled into San Cristobal Island to clear in.....with a crew of 3 mohicans and 7 bald heads! Must of looked like a boat of convicts...but they let us in anyways.

















What amazed me most about the Galapagos was the sheer diversity of scenery. Each island was different to its neighbour, both with animal life and appearance.
Some were lush green with rolling hills (reminding me of the English countryside!) yet others were sheer rocky cliff faces, surrounded by screaming birds. One of them looked like the surface of a planet almost, with lava rocks and dirt, only punctuated with a cactus here and there. The one pictured above was circled by a long, white, beautiful sandy beach....just happened to be prime sealion viewing. They owned the place.
















Having never been attacked by humans (there is a no touching rule) they know no fear of us and so see no reason to move away! Amazing. You can just walk in amongst them....but not too close to the alpha male. The pups even race up to you to sniff at your legs!

A sea lion on the aft deck was an almost constant fixture no matter where we anchored. One evening we even had one come up to the dining table where the guests were eating - they were loving it - but then it took a turn towards the salon doors. They were laughing so hard they could barely shout out for me to stop him, luckily Byron was working on something in the salon. In the end it was a comical picture of Byron holding up the entrance mat (not knowing where the switch to close the doors was!) and waving in front of the sea lion who was dodging left and right to try and get past Byron, not in the least bit bothered by the mat being waved at him!
Wish I had my camera for that one - although it wouldn't be easy serving dinner with a brick hanging round my neck....





Unbelievably lucky to be on the boat we were on ("Tahiti") we got to do a fair few activities thanks to the owners generosity. A full packed schedule with people slotted into different activities each day: morning walk, morning dive - move the boat - afternoon dive, crew dive, afternoon walk.

I was able to visit the Darwin Research Centre - where they bring tortoises from the islands to breed and study and release back into the wild (once they are over 20cm) and met the famous "Lonesome George"! - go on beach walks to see the sealions and huge lizards, cliff walks scouting for blue footed boobies and frigate birds, dive with the sealions - experiencing some serious thermoclines! - and many other activities.

Our fantastic dive guide found the time to run Byron and I through our dive exercises and offically certify us as divers!

The diving was fantastic - if unbelievably cold - with all the marine life surrounding us. There were fish galore, tortoises swimming past, sharks, plenty of mammoth rays and even a wee seahorse - although it was pretty deep and the temperature dropped over 10 degrees on the way down, so it was more of a quick look/snap/admire and then back up.

But my personal favourite were the sealions. So much fun to watch how they roll in the water and swim right up to your face to check you out before swimming circles around you. Fascinating to see how much they enjoy themselves and how interested in visitors they were.

Sadly, our time aboard the boat had come to an end - as the Engineer was able to return - and so we had to say our goodbyes and head to the airport...yet another adventure in itself.

It was a tender ride to the town, then a 45 minute taxi all the way to the top of the island, then a ferry boat across, followed by a bus to the little shack where the planes leave from! Officially the smallest, most informal airport (seriously, water? nah, take it on with you) ever have I seen.

And then we were headed to Ecuador to relax on a random beach before going home...

(I'll put up some more Galapagos pictures soon)

Cocos Island...

Bit behind on the old blog right now...seeing that I'm back in Liverpool, sitting in front of the fire (novel!) with a cuppa!
So here's to catching up...

After leaving Costa Rica we headed out to Cocos Island, the largest uninhabited island in the world, for some serious diving.

The 36 hour crossing was pretty uneventful, nice smooth sailing, although we did catch a whopping fish.





We spent from the 4th-8th March anchored off Cocos Island.
Cocos has some of the best diving in the world, especially at this time of the year as this is a big feeding ground for the hammerhead sharks.

Schools of hammerheads with as many as 300 of them have been seen!

....I managed to see 2.
But one of them was a beast!

Last time I was at Cocos was on a different boat (lets call it the "big L") and didn't manage to dive much at all - although hard to complain when you're learning to dive in a top dive site...
...2 years went by without another opportunity and then I was on my way back....
This time however, on a different boat (lets call this one "Tahiti"), even with the owners onboard, I was diving once a day, seeing unbelieveable numbers of fish, chasing sharks and somehow my problem with equalising has magically dissapeared. Fantastic!


We had a live-aboard dive master/park guide from Galapagos who was amazing. He took Byron and I through our dives, managed to order our dive course books (in the middle of the ocean) and have them waiting for us at the next port (Galapagos!), filmed the owners and crew during their dives and made a great DVD at the end of the trip for us all to take away.


There are 3 trails on Cocos, last time we did the waterfall hike - which was awesome, but was closed this time due to heavy rains making the trail impassable - and this time we managed the Chatham Bay trail.
It starts off zig-zagging steeply up the side of the mountain - so you're totally knackered by the time you reach the top - then meanders through all different kinds of trees and shrubs, the guide shows you which ones the wild boars eat and, of course, which ones are endemic. Some beautiful views of the coast line way down below!
Then it all changes...
it pretty much becomes a vertical downhill mudslide with a few knotted ropes here and there at the desperate parts. Lots of fun!


It ends around the other bay, near the rangers station and you can see the 'famous' bridge made from fishing equipment (in one of the photo's at the top). It's illegal to fish anywhere within the Cocos protected area, which extends pretty far out, but they only have like 3 boats to patrol the entire area surrounding the island! When they do find lines and nets though, they haul the entire lot in and take it ashore to put it to good use - there is a bridge, walls, barriers....interesting uses. Whilst we were there they were constructing a path up the side of the mountain, with fences woven from fishing line and buoys!

And then it was on to Galapagos...!!