Galapagos - 8 day cruise

We boarded the Corals 1 boat for our 8 day cruise of the Galapagos islands. The benefit of being of the boat is that we can explore an island and then while we sleep we are taken to a different island in the Galapagos.

Our cruise took us to the islands of Santa Cruz, San Cristobal, Santiago, Bartolome, Floreana and Española.

Each island boasts unique set of animals, landscape, beaches and flora. These were the islands that formed the foundation of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

We saw the giant tortoises had evolved over thousands, maybe even millions of years to apart to the unique environment on each island. Sadly years of abuse by humans have made the giant tortoise extinct on three of the islands ... Three species that will never return. We Lonesome George a giant tortoise found on one of the northern islands and known to be the only one left of his species.

We snorkelled up to twice a day and saw loads of different fish, penguins, dolphins, sea lions, sea urchins and coral. We also saw many varieties of birds including nasca, blue footed and red footed boobies, albatross and the Galapagos hawk. We were lucky because it is mating season and on Española we saw the albatross and blue footed boobie courting dances. Albatross ate monogamous and wait for their partner on this island ... And start their courting dances.

The island of Bartolome is a relatively young island And it's lava fields are truly stunning. Two species of plant grow here ... They use the minerals available and the minimal water to grow. The plants in turn deposit other minerals into the soil that would allow other plants to grow in the future.