The Travelling Buncebury's

covering 2 - 16 March 2019 Islas Fernandina and to show that the islands are varied here are a few landscape shots of other islands Rabida Island Rabida Island with our boat The Aida Maria in the background at James Bay, Santiago Island  the beach at James Bay Tortuga Bay, Santa Cruz Island We aren’t snorkelling people but we certainly got more confident with it.   It was suggested to begin with  that wearing a life jacket at the same time would be good for buoyancy and we tried it but it was very cumbersome so that didn’t last.   I also didn’t realise that the zip on a wetsuit is worn at the back so after struggling to get one on I had to do it all over again but the right way round.   Many of you will know that I’m very short-sighted and while I have prescription lensed goggles for swimming these wouldn’t fit under my snorkelling mask.   So I saw a lot of blurred underwater stuff until after a few days I tried putting the goggles outsi

covering 2 - 16 March 2019 sunrise on North Seymour What was very different about this eight day cruise from our usual laissez-faire attitude trips was that everything was organised for us.   Where we went, what we did and what time we did it.   There were some very early starts with us leaving the boat at 6.00 in the morning.   There were a number of overnight cruises of eight or nine hours so that we were in place for a different island trip the next morning.   Every day had three or four activities of walking or snorkelling and it was a pretty intense eight days. Nazca Booby - note the more conservative footwear Galapagos Land Iguana young Mockingbird begging for food Lava Lizard I mentioned it in an earlier Galapagos blog but the one thing that would surprise most people is just how close it’s possible to get to the birds and animals.   They’ve lived in isolation for so long that an innate fear of humans has never developed.    It is quite n

covering 2 - 16 March 2019 "don't you step on mah blue suede shoes" Blue-footed Booby Sally Lightfoot Crab and boots This has to be the most iconic wildlife destination in the world and we’re here to see a good selection of the delights on offer.    The Galapagos really do have some unusual creatures, from Giant Tortoises and seaweed eating Marine Iguanas to birds with slight adaptations for exploiting different food sources, the Darwin Finches.   I’ve also never seen so many turtles.   These are the islands which Charles Darwin visited for only five weeks in 1835 but which still gave him enough observations and data to help him formulate his Theory of Evolution.   These are volcanic islands moving apart slowly as the tectonic plate seabed moves.   Some of the volcanoes are still active.   There was a significant eruption on one island in the last few years and of course where a lava flow reaches the sea, the island gets bigger as the molten