A dream came true when I booked my 5 day boat trip to the Galapagosislands. Its fucking expensive to get there and to do the boat trip, but worth every penny!! I booked my trip with Sarvaltours (Av. Amazonas). I wanted to get on the Merek boat - because I got an recommendation - but it was already full. So I got another good deal on the Guantanamera - a bigger boat for 16 people.

I left Quito sunday morning early - after a very short night - by plane. We were supposed to leave Quito at 11.30 and get to Baltra Island at 13.30, but the plane broke down in Guayaquil so we had to wait.. we waited about 7 hours for a plane!! Yes 7 hours. So late in the afternoon we finally departed from Quito, flying first to Guayaquil, waited another 40 minutes and than finally departed for Baltra Island. I arrived around 19.00 on Baltra and luckily my pickup was still waiting for me :)

Once on the boat - who had to wait for me for several hours :) - I met the other 15 passangers and the 6 man crew. The boat looked good and was pretty big. We started with a cocktail and our guide gave us a briefing about the next day. After the briefing we had diner which was a buffet - all you can eat!!

So these five days were basically this: get up at 7 or 8 and have breakfast. First activity is either snorkeling or a hike over an island. Come back to the boat for lunch - again a big buffet :) - do another activity like snorkeling or a hike and again come back to the boat for diner. The boat went from one island to another during the night which saved a lot of time.

Santa Fè Island

Unfortunately I missed the hole first day, so after my arrival the boat headed south to Island Santa Fè. After breakfast we got dropped of at Santa Fè island for a 2,5 hour hike. You are not allowed to do any hikes on your own, so our guide had to be with us all the time, watching us where we walked because there is only one path, crossing it was strictly forbidden!!

During our hike we saw one of the seven species of land iguanas. There were sooo many of them, unbelievable! All I can tell you about those animals is that each of them has there own territory, which is a Opuntia cactus. The bigger the cactus the better, because getting a female depends on how much food you have. So the bigger the cactus, the more fruits you have, the more females you attract :) Wonderful life! Also many sea lions and many different species of birds like the red-billed tropic birds.

After the hike we headed back to the boat for lunch and had a little nap :) Around midday we went for a swim and were able to snorkel around. There was not much to see unfortunately. We had diner on the boat and I went to bed early. I was so tired from the night before. The boat went from Santa Fè to Española Island during the night.

Española Island

We started our day with a nice swim in one of the bays of Española. After that we had a drylanding on the island, and there we saw so many sea lions, we could even almost touch them, so close we were. Again we had a wonderful hike on this island and we saw so many different kinds of birds like the Albatrosses and the blue-footed boobies, which are really beautiful!

Floreana Island

The last Island we visited was Floreana Islandwhich is famous for the Post Office Bay. Here you can drop of postcards without a stamp. Other visitors will have a look through all the postcards and take the once from there country or city with them and deliver them. So sometimes it was be within a week, but some cards will be there for a long long time. I hope my 12 postcards will arrive someday :)

After having posted all the cards we went snorkeling again, and this time it was really amazing because I swom with giant turtels!!! Yes they were really huge and so close. Also many sea lions were again playing with us. Everytime I dove into the water they did the same swimming around me :) This was definitely the best activity I did on this trip!

Santa Cruz Island

The fifth day we got dropped of at the Santa Cruz Island were we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station, home to the biggest turtels! I booked an extra day on Santa Cruz, so I had enough time to see those wonderful turtels walking around, eating and even pooping :)

Thank you Galapagos for the great moments!! It`s really a once in you life time experience.

More amazing photo`s are here!!