Galapagos Islands When we started to plan this South-American tour, one thing was clear from the start. We would visit the Galapagos Islands! We heard it might take a while to organize the trip so we skipped Peru in order to have more time. It took better part of the Saturday in Quito to get the trip booked, cause there was not so many free places left for the next weeks tours. All in all we got a good deal (680 USD) for a 4 day cruise in one of the first class boats called Lobo de Mar leaving the next day aka Sunday.
	All tourists arriving to Galapagos have to pay the park fee, 100 USD.
	Sea lions can be seen everywhere in the Galapagos and they are not afraid of people. The young ones are quite curious and playful so they came to play with us while we were snorkling. Beware of the furry missiles!
	Sunset on Floreana Island.
	One of the white sanded beaches on Floreana.
	The sea turtle nesting ground, no walking there.
	One of the sea water lagoons, home for the flamingos. No zoom in our crappy camera so the birds are quite small in the picture.
	Same lagoon a bit later.
	Had to come all the way to Galapagos to find first Finnish people on our trip.
	There was a soccer match between boat crews on the Floreana.
	More sea lions posing. There are about 250 000 sea lions in the Galapagos.
	Nice looking grabs.
	The number of boats cruising the Galapagos is limited and also the route of every boat is defined by the officials. This is how they limit the number of tourists visiting each island per day and protect the environment from too much use.
	Third day on the Galapagos we went to the Espanola or Hood Island. Sun bathing between the sea lions on the beach and snorkling near the rocks. Too bad we didn't have water proof camera. The underwater marine life was awsome!
	The Galapagos hawk.
	Red and black marine iguana. These guys were also plentiful in the islands.
	Few of the black and white masked boobies on the rocks.
	Blow holes sound like a pair of whales.
	Bluefooted boobies, the wierdest looking bird in the islands.
	Albatross airport. The male albatrosses arrive before the females and choose the place for the nest.
	Wawe albatross couple, just arrived to the airport.
	Lava lizzard.
	Last day in the Galapagos. We visited the Charles Darwin Station where they breed the land tortoises and land iguanas. Land iguanas in the picture.
	Land tortoises may weigh as much as 250 kilos. The shells of the tortoises differ from island to island and the park rangers have to be sure that they don't mix the species. So all the tortoises born in the station get a number to their back and each island has a different colour.
	These guys were taken to be pets long time ago and no one knows from which island they came from. That's why they are kept at the station.
	From Galapagos we flew to Guayaquil, biggest city in Ecuador. We spent rest of the day and night there before heading to the west coast of Ecuador for a little rest after all the hard travelling.