One of the Boyz!

A couple of marine iguanas catching some rays....

Well, it wasn´t all bad news...Good news being, the 9 Israelis turned out to be 7 with the two remaining passengers being Eva and Marie, Danish girls who were great fun....
The bad news being that not one of the Israelis was under 70....

The crew took me under their wing. This meant being included in all of their boyish jokes and that with the group of older people being rather demanding and extremely rude and condescending about it, the crew refused to speak what little English they knew; I acted as translator. So much so, that I was asked 3 times within 24 hrs whether I was part of the crew!
It also meant being the butt of a lot of their jokes when they found out my new room mate was an 80 year old man....Thankfully, I had taken to sleeping on the upper deck!!!

It was an interesting experience sitting at our meals around a table with Hebrew being the main language spoken...Very little effort was made to include us in the conversation or to ask us if we agreed when they wanted to change the itinerary; It just happened. In the dinghy when we went exploring the coast line, once an animal was spotted, they all crowded to that side of the boat with their cameras, and video cameras...Us three were often left to see 7 bums rather than the Galapagos penguin on the rock...It happened that many times that Eva decided to take a picture...We called it the Galapagos Bums!

Us youngens got ours back when we went snorkelling...Spending as much time as we could in the water before finally deciding that it was time to get back to the boat. Usually when our hands looked like prunes and we were shivering...Took us a while trust me.

The life under water in the Galapagos is amazing...Not only the life, but the landscape as well. With the islands being made from volcanic eruptions, underwater the rocks are actually lava flows, creating tunnel like formations. Fish can be found within a metre of the surface, and as mentioned earlier turtles, sea lions, and sharks can be seen in deeper water.

Life and landscapes are amazing above land as well!

All in all a fantastic week spent on turquoise blue water, with not a care in the world other than where we were snorkelling next, and ¨Should I have a rum and coke or a beer...?¨
Life was very difficult.

Now back in Quito, my last purchases need to be done...Am really quite sad to be leaving. Had such a ball here....All ok, though, just need to figure out the best and easiest way to get a working visa and come back!