The Galapagos Islands

The Galapagos or the Enchanted Isles as they were formally known conjures up many images- giant Galapagos Tortoises, hammerhead sharks, penguins, fiery volcanoes and last but not least it is where Charles Darwin first penned his thoughts on his "Theory of evolution" on board of the Beagle. We both decided very early in our planning that the Galapagos Islands was going to be one of our highlights. ITs not cheap to get there and as a welcome present you have to pay 100$ entrance fee, but in the end it's worth every penny!
After some research we felt our best option was an 8 day voyage of discovery on Board of the cruise ship Eden - we weren't to be disappointed...The Itinerary of the cruise consisted of mostly the eastern side of Galapagos- this included the isles Genovesa, Bartolome, Santa Cruz, Floreanna, Espanola and lastly San Cristobal. Each island has its own draws. In the far north Genovesa was our first stop. Its famous because its one the few islands that has no introduced species from Humans ie Rats!. With the absence of the dreaded rat there are huge colonies of blue footed boobies, red footed boobies, frigate birds etc. Genovesa is also where I had my first encounter with a Hammerhead shark snorkelling (it was swimming right besides Uli) They truly look like an alien and are pretty damn big (5 meters approx) but they are not an aggressive animal towards humans, at in Galapagos....
On Santa Cruz we visited Lonesome George in the Darwin reserach station. Sadly, he is the last of his sub species of Giant Tortoise who was in fact tought to be extinct up until he was discovered in the 1971 wandering all alone on Pinta Island. During our stay we hoped to find a pretty "Georgina" for George in order to extend our holidays for a few months: There is a reward of $10,000 for the discovery of female for George, which will save the subspecies. Of course no luck :( But back to the Galapagos (Giant Tortoises): Nearly 1/2 of the species of Giant Tortosies have been wiped out. Unfortunately, before the Galapagos Islands were allocated National Park status there was no protection for these amazing animals. The Islands for centuries were used as rest stops for Buccaneers which was not good news for the Giant Tortoises as they a great source of fresh meat and easy prey. In fact they had been known to stay alive for up to a year stored on boats without food or water. So they were welcomed food on months long sailing trips....Even Darwins attempt to bring some tortoises home for research failed because they were eaten by the crew....

Of course we also had to try our luck scuba diving on the Galapagos. Surely it is one of the most beautiful and also most demanding places to scuba dive in the world. The water is so cold that we had to wear two diving suits, a hood, booties and a weight belt of 10 kilos!!! We felt more than astronauts rather than divers with all this equipment. And we were lucky, on our big day the waters of "Gordon Rocks" were calm. Normally, the diving spot is also known as the "washing machine" and nothing for beginners... The demanding dive rewarded us with turtles, sting rays, manta rays, Galapagos sharks, hammerhead sharks etc. & this all in ONE dive :)

Galapagos - what a beautiful piece world....In the 1930ies it was nearly leased to the United States for a 100 years for a couple of Millions$ - as the Ecuador's economy was doing very badly. Thanks to the not consent between politicians (some things never change) it remained Ecuadorian property and a paradise holiday destination.