We're so excited to go to the Galápagos Islands, we had decided to come here ages ago, well I had decided that I wanted to come here years ago. John also wanted to go, as it's his birthday soon, we wanted to try and come here for it, so tried to fit the cruise around his birthday. We ended up getting a cruise for the 19th-26th August and John's birthday is on the 25th August so it would be a nice way to end the cruise. We wanted to go for an 8 day cruise, as if you go on a 4 day one, I'd feel like I was left wanting more. We'd get to see more wildlife if we went on an 8 day one anyhow. We booked ours through a company called Carpedm, which are below the Secret Garden Hostel, where we are staying in Quito. As we booked the cruise through them, they let us borrow the snorkelling equipment too. 

Our flight departed at 9 .10am so we had to get a taxi to the airport for 6am, so a really early morning start for us. Carpedm organised transport for us to get to the airport as it's an hour away from Quito. We had to get up at 5am, and on a day where we should be so excited, I was not, due to the fact of getting up so early. We got up and ready to leave and went downstairs and the taxi was waiting outside to pick us up. I'm sure i'll get more excited once I set foot on the islands. Particularly when I realise that we are going to be walking in the footsteps of Charles Darwin and David Attenborough. 
  
Once we got to the airport, we had to go pay our $10 fee for the visitor card to the Galápagos Islands.This is a compulsory fee imposed by the Ecuadorian government. We checked in for the flight and went through airport security. They are quite strict with what foods you can take, and you are not allowed to take any plants, fruit or seeds with you. I had some biscuits and a drink and surprisingly, I was allowed to take them through . We checked in fine, and headed to the boarding room ready to fly. I was getting more excited now, although still really tired. It wasn't long now until we will be in the Galápagos Islands- probably the most famous islands for the unique species of animals that have adapted to natural selection over the years to survive the harsh environment of the islands. 
 
The flight stops in Guayaquil to pick up more passengers and then directly to Baltra. It takes about an hour and a half in total to fly from to Quito to Baltra, not including the 40 minute stop in Guayaquil. We flew with LAN, as Carpedm managed to find us a flight cheaper than we could, which flew into Baltra and out of San Cristobel, which is where our cruise ends. We have decided to book a couple of extra nights in San Cristobel after the cruise, as the flight wasn't any more expensive to do this. We'll find accommodation there for a few nights when we finish the cruise.
  
We finally got off that plane and stepped into Galápagos territory on Baltra Island. When we touched down on the runway, you could see that this island was not really inhabited by any animals . The landscape was quite barren and there were loads of dead trees everywhere. The landscape could change, depending on what season you go in. We are travelling in the (Garua) misty or dry season, (May- December), which apparently is in high season and the most expensive time to travel unfortunately. The other is the warm/ wet season (December-May). We had to go through the airport security checks once more and and also pay our $100 national park entrance fees. We were told to put on a badge, so that the cruise staff could find us.
 
We eventually got through to the other side, which felt like it took forever, I was getting so excited now that reality had hit home that we were in the Galápagos Islands! We waited for a short while, and then a lady came up to us and said "welcome to the Galápagos Islands, my name is Sol and I'm your guide for the cruise aboard the Estrella del Mar- star of the sea. We had to catch a coach from Baltra to Santa Cruz and also a boat to take us across to the other island. We got a coach to the port, and then a small boat to get to Santa Cruz . Once on the coach, we realised that there were about 5 older ladies on the coach and nobody else. Where these the only people we were going to be sharing our cruise with? Then once in Santa Cruz, we had to take another coach to the other side of the island where our cruise was departing from, which took about 45 minutes. Once we were there, we boarded the boat, and as we were boarding, we saw our first sighting of an animal; it was a sea lion right on the boarding deck of the boat- so cute. 
 
Now, once on the boat, we took a look around, it is suppose to be a luxury first class liner, and don't get me wrong, the boat was nice, bit I didn't think it was a first class liner. It was a bit old fashioned for me, but we didn't pick the boat to stay on there all the time, we picked it for the itinerary, so I'm sure it will be a good week aboard anyhow. Luckily when we got on the boat we met another young person called Erica, another girl, but at least someone young. Still no blokes for John, it would be so funny if it was just a bunch of women and John for the whole week . We got shown our rooms, and we were told that we could have a room on the upper deck, so we were shown to our room, which was on the upper deck and it did have a large window which was nice. We put our rucksacks in the room and unpacked, as after all, this cruise was going to be the longest place we'll have stayed on our trip to date. We were then given some lunch. Afterwards, Sol introduced us all to the crew and told us we were going for a walk. 
 
Charles Darwin Research Centre
 
The Charles Darwin research centre is where we are heading. This is where the giant galapagos tortoises are kept, and also where lonesome George was before he died last year. The centre is basically a breeding programme to try and restore the Galápagos Islands to the ecosystem before human involvement. The centre breeds giant tortoises so that they can sustain this species in the future. The giant tortoise can live for up to 150 years, so these hatchlings being bred now, will be around for many future generations to come we hope. We started to walk to the centre and on our way, we got our second sighting of some animals, these were Marine Iguanas and they were blocking the road, so the locals had to gently push the iguana along so that they didn't get run over . We also got our first sighting of some crabs, Sally Lightfoot Crabs to be exact- bright orange crabs. That is when it became reality that I was here, seeing the Iguanas. You could get so close to them and they would not even flinch.  
 
We walked to the Charles Darwin station and got taken around to see tortoises of all different ages from the new hatchlings, to ones a few years old, to the really large old tortoises. While we were here, Sol was explaining things about the tortoises to us. The giant tortoises really are as huge as when you have seen them on the David Attenborough programmes, although we couldn't get right up close to them as they were inside their enclosure. We also got to see a land iguana which was also in an enclosure, these are also an endangered species so I think they are being bred to increase the populations. We visited the place where Lonesome George used to live and they also have a RIP sign there as that is where he died last June. Walking along the through the centre we saw a lot of birds too. I'm sure throughout the trip, we're going to see plenty of wildlife and tame animals . You are not allowed to touch or feed the animals anywhere on the islands.
 
After the research centre, Sol told us that we'd have some free time to walk around Santa Cruz so Erica, John and myself all walked around for a while looking in the local shops and trying to find an underwater disposable camera. We came to a local outdoor fish shop, and this one, there was a feeding frenzy, as the fisherman were feeding all these birds. There were some pelicans and also frigate birds, one even had a red pouch, which would have been a male, although it wasn't all puffed up. I hope I get to see some of these magnificent frigate birds with their pouch all puffed up on display while on the trip at some point. We found a few shops selling the camera so we bought one each. I don't know how good the pictures will turn out, but it's worth a try to see if we can get any underwater shots. 
 
We had to return to the boat at 6pm as we were being given a briefing at 6.30pm for what we were going to be doing the next day and also for dinner . The dingy wasn't waiting for us at the dock, so we had to get our taxi boat back to the ship. The sea lion was still there on the deck. It only cost around $0.70 each, so wasn't too expensive. When we got back to the boat and came back for the briefing, we came downstairs to find there was another young guy on the boat called Mark. John was very happy bout this as was not the only guy travelling aboard our cruise. So now there were 4 young people and about 5 older ladies. We got briefed on the second days itinerary so that we knew what we were going to be doing. We were told that we would be going to Chinese Hat Island or Chino Sombrero in Spanish, and also Rabida Island, which is the one with the red coloured sand. Once told about our briefings, we then had dinner. On the boat, I think we are going to eat like kings for a week, well much better than our backpacker budget will allow us to. At dinner time we sat with Erica and Mark and got to know them a bit better, Erica is from California and Mark from London. After dinner we brought our our alcohol that we purchased back in Santa Cruz, John with his rum, and my amaretto which I shared with Erica, and John shared the rum with Mark. The drinks are not included in the price of the cruise, and are expensive, so we brought our own. We asked if we could drink them on the boat and they agreed, luckily.

After dinner we had noticed that the ship was not full up and wondered if we would get any more passengers on board, just as we were saying this, two more young people, a girl and a boy boarded the ship. We said hello and introduced ourselves. There are now 6 young people and 5 older ladies which works out very nicely. We will have good fun on this ship I'm sure. We let the guys settle in and went off to bed. We'll get to know them properly tomorrow I'm sure.