I’m at a loss for words on how to describe these past 10 days. I could rattle off a few adjectives, but none of them would begin to tell the story of my time in the Galápagos. But for the sake of recording this whirlwind of an experience, I’ll try.

Flying in from Guayaquil, I arrived in Baltra Island early Sunday afternoon where the tour guide Edwin was waiting for me. My plane was delayed slightly so I had a late lunch on board the Guantanamera and then met up with the rest of the passengers.

Fortunately, the group was full of interesting and genuinely nice people. More than three-quarters of them Dutch, two Brits, an Israeli, some Canadians, an American and an Argentine made up the mixture. And as has happened so often on this trip, the people made the experience all the more memorable.

The gang - minus the Argentine and American who left early

Because of this, the experience became so much more than just the sum of it’s parts. So I won’t do this story a disservice and just rattle off the itinerary for each day. Most of the time, they were constructed in the same way - breakfast at 7am, activity in the morning (e.g. trek on the island, dingy ride and/or snorkelling on the shore or in deep water), lunch at midday and then another activity in the afternoon. Dinner at 7pm, then afterwards we’d sail to the next destination. There were a few rough nights on board, so most of the time I found myself falling asleep whilst hugging the bed frame to make sure I didn’t roll off the top bunk during the night.

Our guide Edwin was incredible, not only did he keep the group laughing each day, he demonstrated an incredible knowledge of the islands, the wildlife and pretty much any other question we would throw at him. He also had quite an interesting life story which we were treated to late one morning after a few too many drinks, sneakily taken from the bar whilst the crew slept.

On top of that, the crew on board were amazing, even though most of them didn’t speak a great deal of English. The second captain (His parents actually named him “Segundo”, which means “Second” in Spanish. So this was quite fitting.) even let me take the reigns for a while.

The interactions you have in the Galápagos is out of this world. It’s nature at it’s most pristine. There’s no guarantee you’ll see a particular animal like you would get at a zoo or national park, yet we saw almost everything we expected to. We snorkelled with sharks, played with sea lions, swam with sea turtles, countless different types of fish and manta rays, cormorants, iguanas, penguins, owls and a whole lot more.

And then there’d be days you get an extra surprise. On Thursday we were all sat down for lunch when Edwin came rushing in yelling “Dolphins! Dolphins!”. We ran out to the front of the boat and were treated to several minutes of dolphins following the boat, playing together and jumping out of the water. On another occasion we saw a few whales breaching the surface in the distance.

Managed to get this shot amongst the madness

For the animals that you can get a lot closer to, the rules on Galápagos are pretty clear and obvious - no flash on your camera and don’t get closer than 2 metres. It’s things like this, coupled with the fact most of the animals don’t have any natural predators, that makes them surprisingly calm (and sometimes playful) when people are around.

On Wednesday the Dutch contingency grew as we said goodbye to two of our passengers and replaced them with a couple of girls from the Netherlands. That night the crew threw a party for us, with plenty of free drinks and dancing to some local music. It could have been the boat rocking, or the strong caipirinhas, but after 7 months in South America I’m sad to say I’m still no better a dancer than I was before I left.

Before long, Saturday had come around and with it the last full day of our amazing adventure on board. A few farewell drinks turned into an interesting conversation with Edwin and a few others until the early hours of the morning, then a few of us took the opportunity to sleep up on the top deck under the stars for our last night on board. It was really was the perfect way to end the week.

After what felt like 30 minutes of sleep I was woken at 6am by the crew cleaning the ship around where we lay. After dusting ourselves off it was a little island visit for those of us who didn’t opt for a sleep in. It was well worth it, as we were treated to a beautiful sunrise which the sea lions seemed to enjoy just as much as us.

Then it was off to the airport to say our goodbyes. I had already planned to stay in Puerto Ayora for 4 more nights, so I headed back with the Dutch girls who couldn’t get a last minute flight out of the islands. We spent the afternoon relaxing at the hotel after not really getting a chance to do so on the cruise, then at night we hung out with some Aussies and ate some delicious empanadas from a street vendor (always the best kind), then had some drinks on the balcony of our room.

The girls left Tuesday morning, and the comedown from the week that was (and more) finally hit me. I spent the rest of my time in Puerto Ayora doing some day trips, and scuba diving around Floreana and North Seymour Islands, which was again another incredible experience with some equally incredible photos.

Diving with a Sea Lion at Floreana Island

And that’s it. My attempt at covering one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Just as hard was trying to pick the best photos out of thousands of equally worthy shots.