Getting to and from the Galapagos is a bit of a pain. Flying via Guayaquil on the coast, the journey takes some six hours or more travelling from the hotel until we finally got to the boat in Academy Bay in Santa Cruz. Arrival at Baltra airport was bedlam and chaos, then there was a bus ride to the ferry, a short ferry ride across the passage between Baltra & Santa Cruz and finally an hours bus ride more or less to Puerto Ayora where we got a panga (dingy) out to the small/medium sized motorised yacht that was to be our home for the next few days. Although a large part of the day had been taken up with the transfer, we had a late lunch and then did have time to visit El Chato near Santa Rosa in the Highlands (highest point is Cerro Crocker at just 864m - remember we've been at almost 3,000m in Quito) to see Giant Tortoises in the wild. While waiting for the panga ride back there were Sally Lightfoot crabs, pelicans and blue-footed boobies (they're seabirds for anyone whose wondering) near the jetty. Unfortunately I missed dinner the first night: one of life's great ironies - I may travel the world but get travel sick and this particular night there was a lot of swell with the boat rocking quite profusely. The drugs worked eventually though and slept ok until the engines started at 3.30am to travel to the next morning's destination.

The final day we got off the boat early. On our way back to the chaos and bedlam that was Baltra airport, we stopped at the Charles Darwin Research Station to visit Lonesome George, the last Giant Tortoise of the subspecies from Pinta Island. We saw hatching tortoise eggs, the nursery which cares for young tortoises until they are about three years old and corrals housing female and male adult tortoises - some of the males weighing a ton each of both the domed and saddleback varieties.

Addendum: 2009 is the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, 150th anniversary of the publication of Origin of The Species and the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Charles Darwin Foundation in Galapagos and the Galapagos National Park. A collaboration of organisations across the UK has been set up, called Darwin200. They are all celebrating Darwin's 200th birthday on 12th February 2009 with the programme of activities that started in July 2008 and will continue to the end of 2009. For more information about Darwin200 and to view some of the activities, please visit www.darwin200.org and www.discoverdarwin.co.uk.

Intro | Travelling there | Santa Fe/Cerro Dragon | Black Turtle Cove/N Seymour | Espanola | Rabida/Santiago/Floreana