Galapagos

Recently Jemma and I returned from two weeks in the Galapagos Islands, which was just amazing. We did an 8 day cruise and then stayed with a friend of Jemma's on Isabella Island for a few days. We went a bit crazy with photos of animals: this is just a select few! (Sea lions appear a few times, I think they were my favourite)

The hermanas

Pelican

Nasca boobies

Red-footed booby

A gull, probably a Galapagos Gull, that's how most things were named

Bartolome Island - note the sunken volcano crater

Turtle sandwich: it's difficult to get the full picture from this photo, but in this lagoon we found about seven male turtles swimming around waiting for their turn with the one female. 'Gang rape' is the term that came to mind.

Our boat, The Fragata. Great crew and the best chef in all Galapagos!

On many of the islands there was little to no plant life because they were just rocks. This one had beautiful red plants and many cactus.

Loads of iguanas... these are land iguanas.

Our boat was usually accompanied by frigate birds (these are the ones who puff up their necks, photo later.)

Fish market at Santa Cruz... note the pelicans and sea lion looking for scraps

Baby tortoises at the Charles Darwin centre

Giant tortoises at the centre, being kept for breeding purposes. This is where we saw Lonely George, the last surviving tortoise from one of the islands (can't remember which one). We also saw lots of these guys wandering around on Isabella island.

Jemma impersonating an iguana

Baby albatross - hilarious. And this was a really big bird! I think the adults have a wingspan of up to 3 metres... they were huge!

Red and green iguana

The coastline where the albatrosses were. This is what the young ones have to leap off when they learn to fly.

Blue-footed booby

Sea lions would often hang out on the back of the boat.

These red crabs were everywhere

A collection of underwater life

Salt flats

The 'post office'

Just one of the many spectacular sunsets as viewed from the boat

Sunset on the beach in Isabella

Flamingos in Isabella

Our guide, Manuel

A land iguana and a marine iguana together... quite unusual. Apparently they were originally the same species but evolved to be based on land or sea.

The aforementioned frigate bird, with his chest puffed up like a balloon.

2 weeks in Colombia

Hi everyone

Just over two weeks ago I met up with Jemma at 1am at the airport in Bogota, Colombia! We checked out Bogota for a couple of days, but it was very cold and quiet, as it was a long weekend and everyone gets out of the city for those. We did wander around and get a bit of a feel for things though, as well as recover from jetlag (for me).

Bogota

After a couple of days we flew up to Santa Marta in the North, to do some beach sitting and enjoy the hot weather. Both of us were exhasted from having finished our degrees and the effort involved in packing everything up and getting to Colombia, so we spent a few days reading and sleeping... it was amazing. As well as Santa Marta we spent a few days in the backpacker hangout of Taganga. I had a few Spanish lessons so now I feel like I can understand a bit of Espanol, but I really can't speak any, I would be completely lost without Jemma, who is fluent!

After our week-ish of recovery we headed out on what turned out to be an amazing trip to Ciudad Perdida - The Lost City. It was a 5 day hike in the jungle to a pre-spanish city that was only 'rediscovered' in 1975 . The hike itself was really hard work, very steep hills (up and down, not straight up), muddy, SO HOT (I have never sweated so much in my life - or smelled as bad, as clothes just did not dry in the damp weather) and our guide Wilson enjoyed telling us about all the people who had injured themselves or worse on the trek from falling off the cliff or getting swept away on the river crossings. Having said that, we could not have asked for a better guide, he was appropriately cautious and had been running treks right from the start. Both Jemma and I felt that if we had fallen into the river he would have jumped in and rescued us, so I guess you can't ask for more than that!

Boots - end of day 1

The view - day 1

We were fed very well, and for two nights we slept in hammocks, two in beds. Jemma struggles with the hammock a bit because she has longer legs, so it turns out there is at least one minor advantage to having short legs. We were hiking with Wilson, and a group of 3 others, who were great. Along with us there were another 3 groups of 10-20 people each. So there were quite a few people staying in the campsites each night.

Hammock plus mosquito net

The actual city, when we got there, was amazing. Not all of it has been uncovered (it's an ongoing process) but it was a lot bigger than I was expecting. There was a lot of stone work for stairs, circles that huts sat on, and all leading up to the main altar at the top of the hill (now conveniently sized for a helicopter pad for those slackers who don't hike in).

Jemma sitting on her throne :)

The helicopter pad /altar area

The top of the city is also home to a military camp, due to the unfortunate abduction of a group of trekkers by guerillas in 2000 (I think) . There is seemingly no guerilla activity in this part (or indeed most parts) of Colombia anymore due to military activity and the shutting down of many of the coke labs which littered the area. The locals who grew and and manufactured the cocaine had to sell the product to the paramilitary leader of the area, who then onsold it for a (I imagine very large) profit. Even so, the locals made a large amount of money, and really didn't have any other feasible option for employment. The village we started in is now very poor, but Wilson told us that previously you could find luxury cars and frequent massive parties while coke production was in full swing. I asked if there had been any problems with drug use in the village itself, but Wilson told us that the local producers were not allowed to use the drugs themselves under any circumstances, as they would be kicked out of the village. So from their point of view, they are much worse off now than before.

Tourism is a growing industry, and anyone who can gets a job on the trail as a guide. The government is also subsidising the cost of planting and growing cocoa plants, which take a few years before they reap a harvest. Even still, the village is now pretty poor.

After Ciudad Perdida we stopped off in Tyrona National Park; we arrived in the dark and had to negotiate a very muddy path in which we got very stuck (see below)... but woke up to a beautiful location the next day! (also below)

Currently we are in Medellin, and on the way here we stayed in Cartagena for a few days. It was a beautiful port city, and completely surrounded by walls to keep the pirates out, so alas we did not bump into Johnny Depp.

Thanks for reading, and more later (hopefully)