April 25th 2009 - Cruising

It was the first day of our cruise today and we were up at 5.30am this morning but not because of excitement….but to sing a Danish Happy Birthday song to Louise Sk! The black coffee that followed didn’t perk me up enough though as I was laying down at the meeting point until we were taken to the port, had our bags checked and we boarded the boat and got on the way.

The cruise to the snorkel point was amazing. From seeing San Cristobal fade into the background to seeing dolphins and whales swimming by our boat, to seeing a small uninhabited island, to watching masked and blue-footed Booby’s from a stunning vantage point relaxing on the front of the boat, it was a stunning first sail.

We stopped to snorkel just off Champion Island and almost immediately me and Soren spotted a shark deep below us! It was incredible, and all of the various fish just kept me spellbound. My favourite was a King Angel fish – orange fins, blue touches, a white stripe and the rest black – it was beautiful. But the variety of the different species and vast numbers within the shoals was amazing. It was such an incredible experience, I would just float along following one fish before another one caught my eye and I would follow that one instead.

The sea lions were brilliant as well. So different in the water compared to the lazy slobs they resemble on land. There was so many of them and they played with humans as well as each other – when they swam directly at me I did think that they would hit me until they darted away just before they would have crashed into my face. My favourite sea lion though was one who kept biting my flipper then looking up at me with big beautiful eyes as it to see ‘It’s cool if I eat this, yeah?’

We docked at Floreana and played a little pool and had some lunch. A Chiva took us to the highlands and the little bit of rain we were experiencing ceased and the sun came out – I realised I should have brought my hat I had left on the boat. We sweated and scorched in the highlands while visiting some Pirate caves (random rock formations that Pirates apparently used to use) as well as a number of giant tortoises. We got back on the boat with the highlight of the rest of the journey being watching rainbows come in go in the spray of the boat.

We headed to Isabela where we were given a little briefing before having a nice tea and a bit of birthday cake for Louise Sk. I went out to get an ice cream with a couple of people and we ran into a guy holding a snake – yep, just down the street he had a real snake. A few of us got to try and hold it and so for the first time in my life I got to hold a live snake. A great end to an incredible day.