Galapagos – sea lion pups and the infamous blue footed boobies

I love the behaviour of people, how they form their little packs, there are 6 of us in our pack and I’ve also noticed the brits down mix with the Americans. We have also yet to find people that aren’t retired. Waking up in Quito, we had an early start to get to the airport for our charter flight. Driving through Quito, the entire road of Avenue Amazonas was closed for cyclists. Apparently every Sunday one part of the road is closed for people to exercise. This is the equivalent of closing Oxford street every Sunday. Maybe a suggestion for Boris.

We went straight through to boarding, I’m liking this charter flight business, you don’t have to queue and you can take liquids on the flight! We flew with Aeogal, champagne was offered (at 9am) we had branded table clothes before given our trays with napkins and metal cutlery! The best bit was the salt and pepper shakers that were a mini plane.

Arriving into Baltra airport was interesting, a series of open huts, then we boarded the buses to the dock. On with the lifejacket, then we queued for the boat. Unfortunately Ali didn’t have a lifejacket so off I went on the navy seal zodiac while Ali looked lost on the pier. We sped across the water to our home for the week, Celebrity Xpedition.

Our first activity was a briefing and the announcement that you are not allowed to go to the toilet on the islands, and in the event of an emergency, they will send a zodiac to get you to go to the toilet. I vow to not drink before visiting, how embarrassing would that be. However, being the youngest by about 20 years, we should be fine.

We had our compulsory evacuation drill where we donned out lifejackets and went to our assembly point, and then we were off around the archipelago. First stop North Seymour island and our first dry landing which was getting off the zodiac straight onto the rocks. We saw frigit birds with their bright red throats, swallow tailed gulls, brown noddy, striated heron, Galapagos drove, warbler finch, marine iguana family, lava lizards, numerous sea lions and the infamous blue footed boobies.

Trouble was, the sea lions were everywhere, you really had to watch your feet so you don’t trip over one. They just don’t flinch, the amazing thing about the Galapagos is that the animals rule, humans are secondary to them, it’s their islands and they have no fear of these strange creatures walking by the side of them. It’s pup season too, and they were absolutely gorgeous. We watched them suckling from their mums and playing by jumping up on their mum’s neck. What a first day.