Lat: 00:45.0 S: Long: 90:18.2 W  - Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands.

Our daily routine of taking afternoon tea and biscuits whilst listening to Alan’s podcast of Desert Island Discs was abandoned when we finally reached the Galapagos Islands, dropping anchor at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, off San Cristobal, at 9am on March 3.

The first impression for all of us was that the islands were nothing like we expected. We thought the islands would be almost barren and inhabited almost entirely by wildlife with just a handful of naturalists to ensure they were not violated by thoughtless visitors. Certainly some of the islands did resemble the lunar landscape, with black lava flats covered with sealions, marine and land iguanas, but others were more hospitable and green, providing vegetation for the spectacular giant tortoises, turtles, pelicans, cormorants, penguins, frigate birds and up to 13 different varieties of finch.

And the two larger islands, Santa Cruz and San Cristobal, were very much a part of the 21^st century with internet cafes, dive shops, night clubs, five-star hotels and supermarkets.

The 19 islands of the Galapagos, which straddle the equator, are 600 miles from mainland Ecuador, and form a national park and biological marine reserve.  Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was inspired by a visit here in 1835 when he realised that, through the process of evolution the animals have adapted according to the islands’ environment.

Certainly the animals living here without the threat of predators do not have the natural fear of humans that most animals do.

It was quite bizarre going ashore the first time to find whole families of sealions sprawled across the steps and ramps onto the jetty, or waddling along the sea-front to find a comfy park bench on which to take their siesta.

We had been warned not to leave our tenders down at night to prevent sealions taking a berth but nothing we did could deter them from basking on our transom bathing platform – completely unfazed by our comings and goings. We didn’t really mind them being there except that they did a lot of honking and coughing through the night and, when they did go, there was a smelly pile of bristles left behind.

It didn’t take long to accept the sealions and the iguanas that trotted alongside them as we would dogs wandering around back home.  We soon learned  to step around those which seemed to have made their home on the waterfront bar of a smart hotel where Oyster owners met each day at Happy Hour, but it still made us smile to see them join bathers in the swimming pool – and use the steps to pull themselves back out again.

From San Cristobal, Alan and I joined our cruise ship, Isabela II, for a seven-day trip around the islands while Will and Jack spent some time ashore there, sight-seeing, swimming, wind-surfing, diving, rock-jumping and generally socialising, before moving Sulana round to Santa Cruz, where our trip ended.

Our cruise was an amazing experience, due in no small part to our Ecuadorian naturalist/geologist John Garete, who told us everything (and more) than we could ever wish to know about the islands’ formation and wildlife. His passion for the islands, together with his enthusiasm for photography (learnt in part on a National Geographic course) and generally enjoying life was quite infectious.  Alan has already put a few of John’s tips into practice with fantastic results.

Although Isabela II takes a maximum of 40 guests there were only 32 of us on board with 20 crew all of whom went out of their way to provide a first-class service. The food was plentiful, cabins comfortable (if I’m being picky, the mattresses were too firm) and trips ashore for walking and snorkelling were well organised, if exhausting with up to four outings per day! We even crossed the equator four more times!

Fellow guests were German, Swiss, American – and Scots. We immediately palled up with two lovely couples from Glasgow, Mauro and Lorna, and Hazel and Howard, who have been friends and neighbours for more than 30 years. Their week on Isabela 11 was the last in their three-week tour of South America, which had included Machu Picchu.

They were great fun and we have promised to meet up again sometime in the future. We’ve already heard from Hazel and Howard, telling us how cold and grey it is back in Scotland, and that they had safely posted off a parcel of Galapagos animals back to our own budding naturalist, our grandson, Jack.

As I want to return to the UK as soon as we reach the Marquesas, to be there for the birth of Fiona’s baby (due April 8), we decided not to stay too long in the Galapagos Islands and were the third boat in the fleet to leave.

Just 3,000 miles to go before I’m on that plane!

Alan, Will and Jack can then take a leisurely sail through the Tuamotus, to Tahiti, where I’ll rejoin them three weeks later – just in time to take part in the Tahiti Pearl Regatta.