A week in the Galapagos

There's not many words that need to be added to the previous post...so we'll keep this one brief (and it also gives us a chance to share a few more photos!)
We were staying on a boat called the Majestic - a small (16 guests, 9 crew and 1 naturalist guide), new (launched last summer) and luxurious (particularly by the standards we're used to!) boat. We had a great group of guests while we were on board - 2 very lovely American coulples, a nice group of Danes and a (slightly eccentric) British couple as well as the four of us (including Sam's parents). Our guide, Consuela, was good (although not the scientist we expected) but the crew and chef in particular were amazing.
We quickly slotted into a routine which made the week pass very quickly - 06.15 exercises on deck (we needed to find a way of getting some exercise on board, otherwise we might have gone mad); 07.00 breakfast (large buffet spread, both hot and cold); 08.00 first trip to shore of the day, spending about 90 mins walking and taking pics of the fabulous wildlife; 10.30 snorkelling trip, with probably the most amazing snorkelling we've done; 12.00 lunch (2 course hot buffet); 13.00 chill out time (reading, photo admin, and the occasional siesta!); 15.00 second trip to shore - by now at a different landing spot or island; 18.30 briefing for next day and 19.00 dinner (3 course hot buffet).
The scenery was nice, particularly on a couple of moon-like islands, and we had some beautiful sunsets too:

There were ridiculous numbers of animals, most of which were very tame - our highlights were the blue-footed boobies (their feet really are cool), the giant tortoises, the playful sealions, the iguanas (hundreds of them - both marine and land - with territorial males who would regularly fight, and who a had bizarre technique of sneezing to get rid of excess salt), the brilliantly colourful crabs, the male frigate birds (who inflated their bright red necks to attract a mate) and the millions of finches for which the islands are famed...

The sea life was just as impressive: white-tipped sharks, hundreds of turtles (so many in one bay that they were getting in our way!), penguins (small ones, which whizzed through the water past us), sea lions (which would come and play with us), rays, an octopus (just the one all week which Sam spotted), moray eels and millions of other fish...

'Look at all those fish!'

And in the rare moments we were not captivated by our surroundings, we found other ways to amuse ourselves...