Galápagos Islands: Isabela (Abermarle)

For breakfast we boiled the rest of the special sausages we'd had some of the night before (we didn't have any oil or a grill, so couldn't fry or grill them) and we had half of them - I made sausage sandwiches with the other half for us to have later for lunch.

Then we hung around in the reception area of our hostel while Dave checked his email to find out when we were getting picked up by the G Adventures representative. He didn't have any emails, though, so he and the hostel owner (who was incredibly nice and helpful all round) went down the road to the tour office to speak to them face to face. They came back having found out the required information (we had to meet at the port, it turned out) and so we hung around for a while longer before getting a taxi to the port with all our stuff.

Before we set off for the port, we did a little bit of shopping in town. On the way in we passed a fish stall next to the waterfront with lots of pelicans and a sealion crowded round it. We stopped to watch for a bit before moving on.

We both bought a t-shirt for ourselves and I also got myself a carved wooden tortoise ornament and a woven 'Galapagos' friendship bracelet to go with the ones I bought in Peru five years ago. I also did a little bit of secret shopping.

At the port we had to have our bags checked for fruit, vegetables, seeds and other plant material, because quite understandably the Ecuadorians are very keen for there to be no cross-contamination between different islands. Then the tour company representative met us and we also met up with the other couple who we were going to be with on all our activities on Isabela Island for the following three days. This was a recently retired American couple, Bud and Gale, who until recently had been living in the US Virgin Islands for 20 years. They were both really nice and friendly.

The tour representative put us on a water taxi which took us to the speedboat that took us to Isabela Island. The crossing took between two and three hours and the word 'rough' to describe the sea would have to be the understatement of the year... both Dave and I had never experienced anything like it! Even the Cork - Swansea ferry journey I took with the rugby club at uni pales in comparison. Some of the others were sick, but neither Dave or I were. Dave was fine actually because he'd taken a tablet against motion sickness an hour before the journey, which worked a treat, and I didn't feel sick, only a little dizzy due to the horizon going up and down through the window so much. The jolting of the boat pitching so much meant I didn't get any sleep, though I did try.

As soon as we arrived and I felt the fresh air on my face I stopped feeling dizzy and I felt really excited instead... days of adventure and new experiences were ahead! We were met by the tour guide, Ricardo, and got into the open-sided truck which would be taking us from place to place during the next few days.

We were taken to our hotel, Hotel San Vicente, where we dumped our stuff and got changed before going out with Bud, Gale and two German girls on our first excursion... a flamingo lagoon! Ricardo told us lots of interesting information about the flamingoes and the lagoon. We both love flamingoes so it was wonderful to see them.

The water in the lagoon is brackish, both salt and fresh mixed together, which is why the flamingoes are there.The lagoon was manmade a few decades ago (before the Galápagos became a National Park) when locals quarried for basalt to use as a building material. Once they dug deep enough for water to come through, they had to stop quarrying and they just left the crater as it was. Then the flamingoes moved in. We saw the flamingoes doing their funny 'dance', not a dance at all but a process to stir up the mud to make the tiny crustaceans they feed on to come to the surface. Ricardo also showed us a lava gull that appeared. We were there for a while but then it became dusky and few drops of rain appeared, so we went back to the hotel. We rested until dinner, which was at 7.

Dinner was lovely - yuca, potato and vegetable soup as a starter, a great big slab of fresh fish with white sauce, rice and vegetables for the main and a very thick fruity mixture (like yoghurt with holes in it, but a bit more gooey) for pudding. We had a glass of juice each as well. Ricardo appeared after a while and briefed us about the next day; we had to be ready to leave the hotel at 8.50 the next morning.

We played some cards after dinner - five rounds of 10-card rummy (Dave won overall) - before going back to our room, having showers and downloading photos from our cameras onto my laptop and Dave's USB pen.