Galapagos - Adventures of an English “Marine Aquarist”!

[SPR1968]

So with my 50th birthday looming on the horizon, it was time to plan something a little special.

I really didn’t have any idea what I could do, but having just finished watching one of the latest David Attenborough documentaries, I was overcome by an idea of adventure.

I mentioned visiting the Galapagos Islands to my wife, who immediately and without hesitation, said if you’re going there, you must take our son Ben, who has always been a life long nature lover, and this was an adventure of a life time for him.

So I booked the trip over a year in advance and I’ll document our adventure day by day with lots of pictures for all those interested, and please ask any questions or pictures you would like to see.

This is May 2019

Enter the magical world of Galapagos.......

 

[Janci]

Following this journey!

 

[GoVols]

So with my 50th birthday looming

...
............ ;Oldman

Shaun,
Can you smuggle in a Galapagos tortosie???

 

[SPR1968]

...
............ ;Oldman

Shaun,
Can you smuggle in a Galapagos tortosie???

Yes just for you, and I’ll call it Freddie! Lol

There will be lots of pictures of those for you...

 

[GoVols]

Yes just for you, and I’ll call it Freddie! Lol

There will be lots of pictures of those for you...

Lol!!
Get a hatchling...

 

[najer]

Grabs popcorn!

 

[ScottR]

Do you plan on making any dives while there?

 

[ryanb79]

I'll watch this with interest. From the documentaries I've seen it looks like an amazing place to visit.

 

[PanchoG]

Following my friend

 

[Mariette]

You’re in for an AMAZING adventure!!! I went over 10 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. You and your son will make life long memories.

Sea lions
When you jump off your boat to swim with wild sea lions, grab a piece of seaweed or something and take a little dive away from the group. Every time I did, I was investigated by 1 or 2 curious sea lions. When they approach, drop the seaweed and see what happens. Fun game. Be prepared for an exploratory nip. Got nipped twice. No blood. No bruises. But can be intimidating.

Before you go, observe how they interact. You’re not allowed to go within a certain amount of space from the animals but they may come to you. On the beach, I positioned myself near a juvenile sea lion for a picture. It approached and sniffed my butt, presumably testing to see how I would react. They often greet each other with a face to face sniff. So I immediately presented my face and, much to my surprise, I was given what I call the sea lion greeting kiss. It wreaked of fish.
Luckily, it made no attempt to bite my face off.

Blue footed *******
For me, this bird has been the symbol of the Galápagos Islands. Seeing one in real life brought me to tears. Simply because I couldn’t believe I was there.

Cheers!

 

[ScottR]

You’re in for an AMAZING adventure!!! I went over 10 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. You and your son will make life long memories.

Sea lions
When you jump off your boat to swim with wild sea lions, grab a piece of seaweed or something and take a little dive away from the group. Every time I did, I was investigated by 1 or 2 curious sea lions. When they approach, drop the seaweed and see what happens. Fun game. Be prepared for an exploratory nip. Got nipped twice. No blood. No bruises. But can be intimidating.

Before you go, observe how they interact. You’re not allowed to go within a certain amount of space from the animals but they may come to you. On the beach, I positioned myself near a juvenile sea lion for a picture. It approached and sniffed my butt, presumably testing to see how I would react. They often greet each other with a face to face sniff. So I immediately presented my face and, much to my surprise, I was given what I call the sea lion greeting kiss. It wreaked of fish.
Luckily, it made no attempt to bite my face off.

Blue footed *******
For me, this bird has been the symbol of the Galápagos Islands. Seeing one in real life brought me to tears. Simply because I couldn’t believe I was there.

Cheers!

R2R censored your blue-footed b.... All I saw was blue-footed ******

 

[TriggerFinger]

Following for an awesome adventure!

 

[Mariette]

R2R censored your blue-footed b.... All I saw was blue-footed ******

Bahahahaha

 

[Peace River]

So with my 50th birthday looming on the horizon, it was time to plan something a little special.

I really didn’t have any idea what I could do, but having just finished watching one of the latest David Attenborough documentaries, I was overcome by an idea of adventure.

I mentioned visiting the Galapagos Islands to my wife, who immediately and without hesitation, said if you’re going there, you must take our son Ben, who has always been a life long nature lover, and this was an adventure of a life time for him.

So I booked the trip over a year in advance and I’ll document our adventure day by day with lots of pictures for all those interested, and please ask any questions or pictures you would like to see.

Enter the magical world of Galapagos.......

Happy (almost) Birthday! What an amazing adventure for you and your son! Thank you for letting us be a small part of your exploration!

 

[SPR1968]

Do you plan on making any dives while there?

No diving and I bottled the snorkelling as well! Lol

Unfortunately a certain Mr Speilberg has a lot to answer for here, by disturbing my young impressionable mind when I was about 15. And for reasons that will become apparent later in the story, my survival instinct was correct!

 

[SPR1968]

You’re in for an AMAZING adventure!!! I went over 10 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. You and your son will make life long memories.

Sea lions
When you jump off your boat to swim with wild sea lions, grab a piece of seaweed or something and take a little dive away from the group. Every time I did, I was investigated by 1 or 2 curious sea lions. When they approach, drop the seaweed and see what happens. Fun game. Be prepared for an exploratory nip. Got nipped twice. No blood. No bruises. But can be intimidating.

Before you go, observe how they interact. You’re not allowed to go within a certain amount of space from the animals but they may come to you. On the beach, I positioned myself near a juvenile sea lion for a picture. It approached and sniffed my butt, presumably testing to see how I would react. They often greet each other with a face to face sniff. So I immediately presented my face and, much to my surprise, I was given what I call the sea lion greeting kiss. It wreaked of fish.
Luckily, it made no attempt to bite my face off.

Blue footed *******
For me, this bird has been the symbol of the Galápagos Islands. Seeing one in real life brought me to tears. Simply because I couldn’t believe I was there.

Cheers!

Great pictures and I agree the blue footed ***** (censored but you know which one I mean, it has blue feet and is a bird!) are very impressive, and I’ll post a few pictures. Just remember I’m back from the trip now as well, so this is a diary of the events as they happened

 

[Fudsey]

In for more pics

 

[SPR1968]

So the journey started at London Heathrow were we caught KLM KL1000 to Amsterdam Schipol which is about a 40 minute flight, and then after a very short transfer we were on KLM KL753 from Amsterdam to Quito in Ecuador. Infact the Heathrow flight landed at 08.55 and we were back in the air at 10.00. Flight time 11 hours 15 minutes

We travelled business class and KLM were excellent. I can’t fault them at all and would certainly travel with them again as my preferred airline.

After about 6 hours I began to get bored, very bored... eye spy with my little eye something beginning with mmmm C!



After a further 5 hours or so, we landed in Quito were we stayed for 2 nights in a small hotel.

I wasn’t that impressed with Quito to be honest. It’s a bit basic and seems to lack infrastructure and also telephone engineers by the looks of this



The hotel was nice, very basic but functional and it was a family run type of place. That’s Ben loitering in the corner!



We then boarded the Avianca flight to Baltra Galapagos Islands. It’s stops in Guayaquil for anyone going on this flight by the way. So the journey is about 40 minutes from Quito to Guayaquil, and then 1.53 minutes to Baltra in Galapagos. The Galapagos Islands are roughly 1150-1200 miles off the coast of Ecuador.

Also the planes used by Avianca are modern airbuses so no old prop planes or anything to worry about here.

Just landed



Approaching customs, well if you can call it that. But they do put your bags through another machine to pick up things like seeds, foods to prevent the islands being put at risk by imported plants etc.



And our flying machine leaves us......

 

[hotashes]

Watching the fun unfold

A.

 

[GoVols]

Sea lions

That's so cool!!