It was sad waking up knowing it was our last proper day in the Galapagos. Although Deryn and I agreed we had seen virtually everything we had wanted to see. We all boarded the zodiac for a leisurely couple of hours chilling on nearby Playa los Bachus. It would have been magic except for the mossies that were out in force when we first landed (the bites itched for 4 days!). Nice to be on a beach again.
On returning to the boat, we headed to the channel between North and South Seymour for some snorkeling. We moored the boat and then jumped into the zodiac to head up current before all drifting to the North Seymour side of the channel. It was amazing. Firstly it was deeper than we had been before and we got to see some sharks, including a couple of Galapagos Sharks that looked a lot like little Great Whites. We also passed a dead seal floating in the water which everyone saw except me. I’m actually glad I didn’t. A couple of Spotted Rays glided underneath us which was also very cool. It was sad to be fishing our snorkeling for the last time, knowing it’ll be a rare opportunity to be so close to many of these creatures again.
Following this we dry landed on North Seymour to walk amongst the nesting and mating Frigate’s and Blue Footed Boobies. It was amazing. There we so many of them with chicks, quite a lot of Boobie twin chicks. They had absolutely no fear, you could literally hold your iPhone 20cm from them and they wouldn’t budge. The male Frigates look for a good spot for a nest, build it and then sit with their red gullet puffed out letting the females know that we was available and check out their attributes. And with a house. We also got to see some hawks and get very up close and personal with sea lions.
It was the back to the boat and a short trip to the port next to the airport. All the staff got dressed into their uniforms so we could thank (and tip) them. They really had been amazing. Whenever we left the boats, they would go in and tidy our cabins. Manuel would also offer Deryn a wine class at 5.30. We also thanked our guide Franklin, who had been so impressive with his knowledge and passion of wildlife and geography. Smart, funny man.
We all had to be off the boat by 8am to allow the crew to prepare for the next tour. We all agreed that calling the tour 8 days was mid-leading. 7 days was more accurate as we then had to spend 3 hours at the airport waiting for our flight. I had a hotdog and chips at the airport – smart move having a fast food restaurant at the airport as most people would have a junk food craving after the fresh food frenzy that is the Galapagos experience.
Once again we stopped off in Guayaquil for 45 before arriving at Quito around 4. Dits and I were a bit bummed that we had not planned it better and stayed at an airport – our flight was 9.30am. We expected it to take over an hour to get to our hotel, but it was barely 30 minutes. The hotel we had booked was magic as well – the Kaia Hotel. It had the best internet we had encountered in Sth America so we loaded up on all our current TV shows. We had a nice Mexican which I followed up with some chicken and chips from a dodgy chicken shop on our way back to the hotel. I reckon I was still in a junk food deficit.