Hammerheads!

Good morning friends from the cold climate ;),

So we went to the Galapagos to do some volunteering WORK. Though they expected us on the farm, nothing was prepared for us and there seemed to be no work. We know about cultural differences, but we can't do nothing 8 hours a day, so we decided to leave the place quickly (the cockroach in the shower helped with this decision).

And thus our Galapagos trip started with 4 relaxing days on Isabela island :) our room with seaview, the marine iguanas on the balcony and the nice cocktail bar on the beach compensated enough for the cockroaches. We found a colony of blue boobies (the birds!), mating turtles, sharks, giant stingrays (2m wingspan!), penguins and a seahorse. So our expectations of the Galapagos were met!

We heard that one should do a cruise to really experience the Galapagos, so we booked an 8-day last-minute cruise to the west of Isabela (a part which you can only visit by cruise). But it turned out to be a disappointment...

Though the food was good, the group and the crew were great, nature wasn't as impressive as we saw on Isabela before. Snorkling visibility was bad, our guide was a horrible & boring person and the walks on the lava were far too hot (imagine being in the soaring sun for two hours while you have to listen to someone explaining about why this cactus is different from the one on the other island...).

Highlight of the cruise was a young sealion that played with us for 20 minutes, diving around us, blowing bubbles playfully and swimming up to our face - quite magical :):)

After recovering from our landsickness (a weird sensation that the land keeps on rocking like a boat), we experienced another Galapagos highlight:
we saw a school of hammerhead sharks swimming over us while diving!!!
Now we're spending our last days relaxing, swimming from the beach and drinking espresso.

Tomorrow we'll start to make our way back to The Netherlands - by ferry to Santa Cruz (main island of the Galapagos), by plane to Lima (to shop souvenirs and visit the cat park :D), and finally by plane to Amsterdam on the 25th.

We're looking forward to see you again!
Loes y Erno

PS: another interesting fact about the Galapagos; the street dogs of most South-American cities are replaced by sea lions here, so we woke up by the sound of barking sea lions ;)