GALAPAGOS ISLANDS (EQUADOR)

We booked a 8 day boat tour to visit the Galapagos Islands. We saw many birds, lizards and mammals we would not get as close to anywhere else. We also did not have to share the first class boat with the older generation as we first thought. Instead it was a bunch of young people from various places in the world. Phil enjoyed his first lunch break jumping of the boat with Tanja and ended up with major headaches and a sinus infection. On his birthday he got two nice shots in his bottom from the island doctor and he finally started feeling better. He was not the only one staying in the cabin a lot. Alon, an Israeli guy got himself overdosed on seasickness tablets and we did not see and hear much of him until he realized his mistake. The tipping was apparently a sensible matter for the crew and so it was for our wallet too.

We decided very spontaneously to stay on the island for another week to do our PADI open water course but at first we spent a few days on Isabella to totally cure Phil's infection. We went to swim with turtles and rays, we were holding little shitting turtles and we saw two flamingos very close too. After 3 days we took the 2 hours speed boat back to Santa Cruz to start our diving course. Petra was absolutely useless to blow out the water from her goggles and Phil had a few problems with equalizing and we even lost him once (or he us). After 4 dives and a written test we are the proud owners of a diving certificate and we hope we will use it again soon.