When we were planning this trip, we decided not to go to Galapagos for the simple reason that it's just to expensive. During our travels in Ecuador we met alot of people who went, and they all had the same conlusion: It's worth every penny. We were more and more convinced, and finally ordered tickets from Guayaquil to Galapagos when we were in Quito.

To save some expenses, we just took on daytrips and stayed away from the cruise-boats.. 18. March we arrived at Santa Cruz. Already a couple of minutes after arrival we had our first animal encounter. Walking around on Galapagos is a very special experience. Thousands of years without predators has led to a community were the animals doesn't really fear you at all. Pelicans fly right next to you, sea - lions jumping around on the board - walks and penguins swimming in the harbour. Obviously, it's alot cooler than seeing seagulls and crabs back home.

Mission #1 in Galapagos was diving at kicker rock, hopefully seeing hammerhead sharks and mantarays. Tours to kicker rock is arranged from one of the three biggest tourist - spots in Galapagos, San Cristobal. We took a 2-3 hour boat ride from Santa Cruz, arriving quite late at San Cristobal. A couple of minutes after we got of the boat we met a friend from Montanita, Brian, who hooked us up with a diving center and a hostal. So, already the day after arrival, we were ready for 2 dives at kicker rock. On the first dive we had horrible visibilty, and the first 25-30 minutes was a bit of a anti-climax. But suddenly, 10-15 hammerhead sharks appeared, just 3-4 meter away from us. Laying defenceless in the water on 20m depth with a steam of 3-4meter long sharks on your side is a strange experience, almost overwhelming. We also saw white - tip sharks, loads of turtles, sting- and eagle rays and tropical fish.

On the second dive we had better visibilty, and we saw hammerheads, but not in the same way as on the first one. The experience on the first dive at kicker rock is still for me, Eirik, the highlight of the trip so far..

The next couple of days we stayed on San Cristobal, just snorkling at the different spots and we did a day-tour around the island.. Snorkelling in Galapagos is also pretty darned awesome. Huge sea-turtles, rays and thousands of fish. And everything is just so peaceful and unafraid.

We were told that Isabella, the last of the three biggest islands, was the nicest place to go. It is also the only reachable island with penguins. So we decided to spend the last half of our stay on isabella. It's about 5 hours in boat, with a pit stop on Santa Cruz, from San Cristobal. On our stop in Santa Cruz, we got to visit Lonesome George. The worlds most famous turtle. They reckon he's about 180 years old and is the only left of his species. Although we only actually saw his ass, still a cool thing to have done.

Isabella lived up to its expectations already at arrival. The small harbour was filled with sea lions and a couple of penguins. Really a beautiful place. But they are really low on tour operators and diving centers. Around Isabella there are two famous dive spots: Four brothers and Isla Tortuga. We ended up with taking a chance on Isla Tortuga, hoping to have another encounter with the hammerheads, and hopefully seeing Mantarays aswell. We were partnered up with a couple, Liz and Ignacio, and ended up having two awesome dives. Alot of turtles, rays and white tipped sharks. We also got another hammerhead-experience.

We spent the rest of the days snorkelling, doing most of it on our own, except a day - trip to los tuneles, which is as close to snorkeling paradice as you can get. At that place we got to snorkell with sea-turtles, marine iguanas, penguins, sea - lions and we even found a underground tunell, which we swam through.

All in all, Galapgos was a great suksess and is the highlight of the trip so far. Altough we maybe could have had more luck with visibility on our dives. Galapagos is basicallly like being in an awesome zoo with no fences or guards.