Island explorer

It's been a while since my last post but with no internet at the station and lots of exploring to do on the islands when not there, there hasn't been a lot of time to devote to writing to all of you about what I've been doing. My time in the Galapagos has now come to an end so I'm back in Quito briefly before heading off later today to Cotopaxi to the sister hostel of the one I've stayed at in the city. There's walking, waterfalls and volcanoes to squeeze in before I fly home this weekend. Yes, that's right my flight is booked (thanks Mum and Dad) and I'll be home before you know it. I have mixed feelings about coming home. After living a basic life for a few weeks and not having all the mod cons in South America I'm looking forward to some home comforts and seeing all my friends and family. But I'll definitely miss the excitement of travelling, meeting new people and having such amazing experiences on a daily basis.

But first there's the last week and a half to cover. I'll only get so far and then I'll have to come back and tell you more. Got some packing to do (an almost daily occurrence). So the weekend before last, when we were staying in town on San Cristobal island, we booked a day tour around the island on a boat. The first boat trip in a long time that didn't make me feel horrendously seasick so that was a bonus. We went snorkelling on Islas Lobos and saw lots of fish, sea turtles, rays, sealions (but they're everywhere here anyway). I however bottled the second snorkel as I still can't bring myself to swim in shark-infested waters. This was by Kicker Rock, further out at sea in very dark, deep waters. I was pretty cold on the boat by this point as we didn't have any towels with us, not having realised that snorkelling was included in the trip. So some of us stayed on the boat while the others went diving and swimming. Gave me an opportunity for a bit of a sunbathe though and also to get my first sight of some of those blue-footed boobies that are so famous in these parts.

There were some really interesting people on the boat too, mostly guys. Two pilots from Las Vegas who work for a casino owner and fly round the world at their boss's whim. A crazy Brazilian guy who only really wanted to talk to one of the pilots he took a liking to but would quiz anyone who had been to interesting places on their travels or had an interest in diving. And a couple of really nice Israelis, one of whom had a phobia of sharks and kept telling us where his insurance papers were, his phone and how much he loved his mum before diving into the water. After the snorkelling we headed to Manglecito beach for a little wander and to check out Darwin's finches, which are so tame they come and land on you while you're lying on the sand or just hop around you checking out whether you have any food.

Then it was back to the station later that day, back to the cold showers, mosquitoes, spiders and cockroaches. But the week went quickly and some more volunteers arrived so we kept ourselves busy and had fun going to the bar down the road for Sheil's last night. I'll tell you more in the next post about what we got up to and our island hopping over last weekend.