San Cristobal Island, Galapagos

So, we've now joined our GAP adventures tour in Quito and met our fellow travel companions. There are 9 of us in total and surprisingly everyone is similarly aged between 25-35; and also we have a near enough even mix of girls and boys. Other than Mark and I, we have one other couple, Chris and Lisa, who are celebrating their honeymoon. There are 2 ladies (Leis & Emily) travelling independently and 3 guys (Raffe, Graham and Thom). Raffe and Graham will be joining us for the Lima to La Paz part of the trip too, but the rest are only here for the 8 days of Galapagos Adventure. Everyone seems very well travelled and a wealth of information is flowing freely amongst us. We are trying to soak up anything relevant for the rest of our journey and pass on anything we've glimpsed over the past 5 weeks. It's certainly going to help us plan our itinerary a bit better and great to be able to pass on our knowledge.

After a couple of short flights from Quito we've arrived in our first destination, San Cristobal Island, which is one of the oldest of the Galapagos. I was expecting it to be more lush than it is, but apparently they are at the end of the dry-season and when the rains come it will look much less barren. At the airport we met our lovely guide Jessica, she's a native born on the island. She gave us a little info about where we're staying for the next couple of nights. As we are on a shoestring tour, we've got 2 nights of home-stays in San Cristobal. Absolutely perfect! What a great way of getting to experience the local life. Mark and I are staying with Vanessa and her husband on the top floor of this large two-storey house. Below, her daughter lives with her children and husband and a further daughter's house is just behind us. Vanessa has 5 kids and many grandchildred, one of whom 'Juan-Jose' burst into our room to welcome us as soon as we arrived. He's only 5 and later and very cute. I went over to his house to give him my last Chuppa Chups lolly. The family are just lovely and each morning they made us the most fabulous breakfasts served with seriously good, freshly squeezed fruit juices. Vanessa makes wonderful Christmas decorations and toys to sell. These are really good quality stuff and I just wish I had more space in my rucksack to bring something back as a souvenir.

The first activity we had on the island was mountain biking from the cool and wet highlands down to a beach to see the sea lions and marine iguanas. Mark was in his element, but Jessica has a tight control over the speed, which was good as we had so many varying levels of cycling ability in our group. There were only a couple of hills, both of which I managed to do without getting off the bike. A big pat on the back for me! All the hiking and biking in Paraty must have helped and hopefully I will be fit enough for our 4 day Inca Trail which is fast approaching.

After about an hour on the bikes we arrived at the beach. It was full of sea lions lounging about in the sun. They look  so clumsy on land, but in the water their agility is breathtaking. There is also nursery of small pools where the baby cubs are left to chill out whilst the mums go off to feed. Some of these  were tiny, looked like they only just opened their eyes. The large males were very territorial and didn't like other males getting too close to their lady friends. It was wonderful just observing these animals in their natural habitat and the fact that they were not bothered by our presence meant we got some great photo opportunities.

We also saw many marine iguanas on their way back from the sea to warm up in the afternoon sun. Their main diet is the algea growing on the rocks and they go out to the sea in the low tide to feast and then chill out in the sun to regulate their body temperatures.

Our guide Jessica was so knowledgable telling us all about the flora and fauna of this island and about the formation of the archipelago. The eastern most islands, including San Cristobal, were the first to be formed from the volcanic activity below the tectonic plate, but the volcanoes on these are now dormant. The western islands, like Isabella, which we will be going to later this week, are still growing with their active volcanoes and these also have the least number of introduced species.

Yesterday, we had a boat ride to do some birdwatching and then snorkelled around a huge rock formation off the coast known as Kicker Rock. The water was teeming with marine life. We saw a few galapagos sharks (about 1.5m), 3 large spotted eagle rays, so many turtles and couple of playful sea lions. It was certainly the best snorkelling trip I've ever had and rather looking forward to getting in a few dives whilst we are in the Galapagos.

We are now on our way to Santa Cruz Island which has the most number of human inhabitants. This is also where they have a large breeding centre for the Giant Tortoises. I'm rather looking forward to meeting the famous Lonesome George. Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our lovely guide Jessica and will have a new guide 'Pablo' waiting for us at the next Island.