We board the Ship Galapagos Odyessy after a minor drama with our luggage being left behind [Vicky comes up trumps and saves the day by insisting that I take action and stop the inter-island transfer boat until our bags are on board. Close shave there!!

Odyssey is fine old vessel and the cabins are great. Our guide is a very pretty Ecuadorian girl called Myra

 She is very knowledgable and a bit of a martinet when it comes to whipping in our group of 16 people for the various hikes, walks, snorkel trips etc. We are accompanied by 2 Germans, 2 Danes and six lady school science teachers from Sydney, Australia. The animals we see are simply amazing and they are as widely reported not afraid or seemingly particularly aware of human presence - a great pleasure.

Giant Turtle, Galapagos Penguins and Marine Iguanas - the only Iguana to swim.