... blue-footed ones, masked ones, and red-footed ones too! I love adorable baby sea lions and even ugly scaly marine iguanas. The Galapagos Islands will do that to you - turn anyone and everyone into a nature lover and a fanatic with a camera.

Martial, Gregory and I boarded Sulidae a couple of days ago for a cruising tour of the Galapagos Islands. The National Park Authorities regulate the tourism to the islands so this is the only way to go to actually see the islands and the animals - on an official boat and with an official guide. Sulidae is a 104-year old Danish wooden sailboat with such character - we felt like we were on a pirate ship! After seeing all the glaringly shiny white cruise ship type boats around the marina that carried anywhere from 20-100 passengers (and mostly retirees it seemed), we were so happy to be on the boat that we were on - nine guests in total, all under the age of 35, a boat with history and character, and a great crew. What a treat to have a guide that tells you about everything you´d want to know about the islands and the animals, to have a chef cooking amazingly yummy fresh meals, to have someone else drive the dinghy, to have no worries about wind and weather, to have someone make your bed each day, and to not have to do dishes! Every day consisted of touring an island, taking pictures, snorkeling, afternoon naps, and great meals around a big table. Gregory, Martial and I all felt like we were on a vacation from our vacation!

I think the Galapagos is a place that you have to see to believe. You really do get face to face with sea lions and they really are not afraid of you. You really do get up close and personal with unique birds and they don't fly away. You really do swim with sharks. It is unreal.

A few highlights:

Rabida is a beautiful island with a great bay of red sand and sea lions all around. We hiked up a trail for a view from the top, but it was so blazing hot out all we all wanted to do was swim. We saw sharks and fishes and birds but the best were the baby sea lions that were playing on the beach and swimming around the shore. I was like a little kid again oohing and aahing at them like they were the cutest puppies in a pet store. Such an amazing feeling to be inches away from them and feel like you're just part of the place as far as they are concerned.

Bartoleme was the setting for the Galapagos portion of the movie "Master and Commander" and is the most photographed island of the bunch. It's not hard to figure out why. Absolutely spectacular! We hiked through lava trails and ash and lava rock to the top of the rusty red volcano to look down on lush green and blue lagoons and white sand beaches. You feel like you're on Mars at one stage and then as you reach the summit you feel like you're back in the Caribbean. Seeing turtles in the ocean and penguins on the rocks was just a bonus at that stage.

Blue-footed boobies. By far the coolest bird. I never was much of a bird watcher until I saw them fish. They are hovering in the sky high above you and then all of a sudden there is a whoosh and the bird has dive bombed like a rocket at a 90 degree angle straight into the water. They go deep (they have to at the speed at which they enter the water) and it'll be a couple of seconds before they pop out of the water, like it was nothing. Throw in the fact that they're pretty goofy looking things with randomly baby blue feet and a strange walk and you're even more amazed at how graceful they are in the air and in the ocean.

On the flipside is the frigate, the pirates of the bird world. These birds get by by stealing food from boobies and sea lions or whatever other source there is. They'll snatch the fish right out of a sea lion's mouth or else pull the the tail of the boobie to make it drop it's catch. If there's food around, the frigates are guaranteed not to be far away, just ready and waiting to get involved. They're big black birds with pointed long beaks which probably evolved to steal and scavenge to survive, and are exactly what I imagine a mean evil bird would be in a horror movie. The big red balloon that the males inflate to court the females is a cool sight and pretty impressive. But, after hearing that the many corpses I saw of boobies were from starvation and most of it at the hands of the frigates, I admit to being a selective bird lover.

We realized how much we missed being in the water again and we took every opportunity we had to snorkel. Lots of fish and your fair share of sharks. My most unique underwater Galapagos experience involved a marine iguana. I just happened to float by as one decided to dive in for a swim - we'd seen tons on land but this was the first time I saw them in the water, nonetheless so close! I found myself tailing the iguana for a while, hanging out behind it while it swam along, head out of the water. I must have been a funny sight. My most memorable Galapagos interaction came when I found myself inches away from the whiskered nose of a sea lion. I'd been just paddling around the reef and obviously not paying a whole lot of attention to where I was going or what was coming my way... I was a lot shocked and he was a little curious so we both just hovered and stared at each other for a little while. At one moment he moved in to closer to stare into my mask and I couldn't help but yelp. Off he gracefully went in a flash, and all I could hope is that the underwater photo that Martial took of me in my dumbfounded state turns out!

Six rolls of film and a lot of oohs and aahs later, we´re back on Urios and ready to head out to sea again tomorrow. The Galapagos Islands was a very cool experience for all of us. It was always such a faraway place in my mind, that I feel really lucky to be here and see what we saw firsthand.

From here on out there is nothing west/southwest of us for 3000 miles. Wild to think that this was to have been my getting off point, instead it's the beginning of a whole new experience... again!

Until the Marquesas...