Cruisin'

I'm back. I still feel as if I'm going up and down (very peculiar as I haven't actually been on board a boat very much for the last four days). My honest opinion of the Galapagos Islands - very expensive and overrated. It wasn't helped by the fact that my cruise was curtailed after four days, the group was transferred to another boat for one day then put up in a hotel for two days. As a group we will be complaining and looking to receive a refund of some of our money. We might have been less unhappy if we hadn't been constantly lied to and mislead. We might have been less unhappy if the alternative activities offered had been of equal quality. However, once these companies have your money, they just point to the small print of the contract and shrug their collective shoulders. And, of course, the people we were dealing with were the guides who have no authority while the managers hide in Quito.

I did see a fair amount of wildlife but nowhere near enough to justify the cost. If you know a lot about animals you may get excited about the differences between marine iguanas on different islands, otherwise they all look the same. So here's what I did see: marine iguanas, land iguanas, sealions, blue-footed boobies, frigate birds, pelicans, various gulls, various finches (but never with a guide who could tell me the difference), surgeon fish, lara fish, king angel fish, galapagos sharks, some other type of shark and (thankfully) giant tortoises - not much for nearly 1,000GBP. I will be posting photos when I can find an internet cafe with a fast enough connection but I only needed one memory card.

I do have some positive memories. I learned how to snorkle (only on the last full day and only because one of my companions took the time and trouble to help me - unlike any of the guides). I swam with sealions, communed with tortoises and danced with boobies - and I going to get the t-shirt to prove it!