Galapagos Islands, Ecuador: 28th Jan 10

This morning we went to visit a Giant Tortoise breeding facility, where we saw 10 of the remaining species of Giant Tortoise. There were originally 15 species, but 4 have been wiped out, mainly by pigs and goats introduced to the islands in the 18th century. We didn’t see 11th species – as there is only one tortoise remaining. He is called ‘Lonesome George’ and is the last of his kind – quite sad really!







Later in the morning we took a walk around a small volcanic island where we saw some small penguins and loads more iguanas. We also visited a sort of ravine where white-tipped sharks go to rest in the shallow waters. We could clearly see 2 sharks, each about 5 foot long, chilling out! We also saw some rays swimming along.



In the afternoon we went snorkeling again, this time the visibility wasn’t great, but we swam along the volcanic ravines – quite spooky having cliffs falling into the water on either side of you. We saw some fish, but no sharks this time – shame! On returning to the boat we realized there was a Sea Lion swimming around between the 2 hulls (the Archipell 2 being a catamaran). I jumped in the water along with our new friend Tony and we went to check it out. The light is really eerie under the boat, and the Sea Lion was amazing – really frenetic – he’d jump out of the water to look at us then bomb around and under us at lightning speed – it was really hard to keep up with where he was - a very exhilarating experience!