We joined our boat, the over-enthusiastically named Princess of Galapagos, for an eight day cruise around the islands. Strangely, one of the first things that we did after joining our boat was to go back onto the island! We went to visit the highland areas where wild tortoises still exist. It was great to come across these huge animals just wandering (slowly) about. We saw one that had substantial damage to the side of its shell although it showed no ill effects. Our guide thought that it may well have been caused by a kick from a farm animal such as a cow.

We also made an excursion into a huge lava tube. These are formed as liquid rock from a volcanic eruption flows down the hill. The outer surface is cooled by the air and begins to solidify while the lava continues to flow inside. The temperature inside the tube stays high so the lava carries on flowing and eventually empties the tube, leaving a sort of tunnel of rock. Although part of the tube we visited was low, much of it was as high as five metres, a lot of lava!





In a further bizarre attempt to retrace our steps, our first stopping place once the boat had actually set off was North Seymour where we had dived a couple of days ago (though of course not on land). This island has quite a lot of green vegetation including bushes and trees, which encourages a range of sea birds to use it as a nesting place. In particular, it is a good place to see some of the talismatic Galapagos birds. We first encountered the swallow-tailed gull, with beautiful markings, bright red eye-liner around its eye and red feet. It is apparently the only nocturnal feeding gull and is often found around the boats at night, although we then identify it by the fact it's the only bird flying around the boat in the dark.

On Seymour we also got a good look at the male magnificent frigate birds that we had previously only seen flying overhead. Now we got really close to them sitting in their love nests puffing up their huge red throats and shaking their wings at any females passing overhead. We also got our first look at the famous blue-footed boobies. These seabirds have a curious courtship ritual where the male whistles, stretches his wings and points his beak skywards hoping that the female will respond similarly. If she seems a bit interested he proudly shows her his blue feet and if she is receptive they begin to circle each other lifting their feet in a strange sort of dance.

Our next stop was a real contrast to Seymour. Bartolome island is a relatively new volcanic island with very little in the way of vegetation. The landscape shows little sign of erosion and is just harsh dark stone and dust. There is only the tiniest amount of lichen and early colonising plants that can survive the arid volcanic conditions. However, there was obviously enough food to support the many little lava lizards scuttling here and there. As we climbed to the summit of the island we were able to see numerous areas where pressure had caused lava to burst out from the side of the main volcano, creating further smaller volcanoes. We could also see many lava tubes, formed as lines of lava had run down the hill. Some of them had collapsed revealing the hollow inside. It was very interesting landscape, quite different from the other islands we visited, and quite surreal. From the very top there is a magnificent view of the island including the craggy rockface known as Pinnacle Rock that appears on so many postcards. This formation was made when molten rock from the volcano met the sea. The seawater cooled the hot lava, causing explosions. The exploded particles eventually fastened together and built up the rock in thin layers.