22nd Sep - Arriving at the Galapagos

We got off the plane and boarded a bus to a wee harbour where half a dozen boats bobbed up and down on the water. The 16 of us (one oldish Canadian couple, one youngish Swiss couple, one English mother and daughter and the others, other than one Welsh girl were all young English) speculated which boat was ours. A dinghy (called a panga) collected us and took us to a really nice looking sail boat. Inside a large common room and downstairs a tiny cabin and ensuite toilet and shower, with not enough room to swing a cat but hey we`re in the Galapagos so who`s complaining.

The boat took off for our first sailing and most people felt a bit sick and it wasn`t even rough. After lunch of lots of salad and pasta washed down with a bright orange juice drink, I sat up top and watch the sea sparkling in the sunshine. We disembarked on a small island met by hundreds of sea lions and sea iguanas - ugly black and red spiky things - I thought they were amazing. The island was like a mad SiFi set. Red low lying cactus and green high prickly pears and every so ofter a sea lion or iguana for company. There were no building on the island and no other people. You really felt out in the wild. We watched Galapagos Gulls, and tropic birds flying in and out of the cliffs. We got so close you could almost touch them, the wildlife is totally unscared of humans and just ignores us. I kept expecting a couple of aliens to land or Captain Kirk but only more sea lions chasing one another over the rocks.

Back on board for a long sail to our anchor point for the night. At first I felt fine then as each sucessive person ran green from the room I started to feel a bit sick and eventually sucumbed and was sick a nice bright orange with carrots (which had been served for lunch). I lay down on my bunk which was a bit difficult - climbing into the top bunk while the boat is moving - and felt better. Mairi came in really sick and exclaimed that she was getting off tomorrow and not getting back on.

I left her sick on the bed and went to dinner. The crew were introduced to us and we all had to introduce ourselves - in Spanish - and were served with a cocktail made of sugar cane rum and bright blue stuff. I´ll not go into detail of the colour of sick after that.

I went back to bed and slept fine after my first sea sickness tablet.

The rest of the sail was fine no more sickness - one tablet a day sufficed for me but a competition was on - who could consume the most sea sickness tablets - Mairi, Christie the girl withher mother and Paul an English guy vied for first place. At one point we think Paul was taking more than 6 a day (you are only supposed to take 1 every 6 hours). The crew eventually ran out and said we won the award for the most sea sickness tablets consumed ever.