Brazil Baby!!!!!

so after galapagos we jumped on yet another plane and headed for our most visited city in this trip, thats right.... Santiago!

This was now the 3rd time there and this time was different as my holiday was over and I had to work there for two days. Rob lazed about the hotel recovering from a minor cold and fatigue after such a great trip.

On Tuesday night Rob geared up and headed to the airport for the trip home, she has a few days off still as she doesn't start the new job till Tuesday. Its a shit of a trip home though and it took her around 24 hours.

I jumped on a plane for my flight to Sao Paulo in Brazil to do some work for a couple of days there. The flight out was amazing with a perfect morning, and a crystal clear view as we went over the Andes. It was a really special flight.



Sao Paulo is HUGE, not quite as big as Mexico city but not far off it, about 18 million here. Its a monster. The traffic is terrible and the pollution is much much better than Santiago with 3 million, go figure....


Anyway, work as usual consisted of visiting a lot of shopping centres and a lot of negotiations and discussions, this time in Portuenglish. I will be multilingual after this trip for sure! Brazil is not really what I expected, although I was only here for 4.1 days I don't think I got a good feel of the city or the people.

On Saturday night I hooked up with Silvia Marino, well known to some of you balloonies as the cheif observer for Brazil and a good friend since 1997. It was great to catch up, although I did have one or two too many which may not have been the best idea right before my flight home.

Speaking of that, my trip home, from arriving at Sao paulo Airport will take me 37 hours! Thats a lot of time. Have a guess where I am as I write this...........thats right.... Santiago, again! This is the last time as I am now 7 hours into the return trip, only 30 to go, yeehah :(

WOW!

When you hear people who have been to the Galapagos Islands talk about their experiences you think they must be mad, it couldn't be as good as they say it is. The animals cant be so tame, there cant be such diverse life forms, there cant be stuff to keep you going for 8 days.

Its all true, and not just that, its 100 times better than anyone can explain. There are no words that can convery how amazing a place it is or how it is possible that every new day is better than the last. Swimming with turtles, searching for giant tortises and finding them mating, unbelievable snorkelling, stepping through and around giant marine iguannas, stepping around Blue Footed Booby nests on the trails as the bird just watches you go past, it is an experience you cannot get anywhere else on Earth.

We were on a smaller vessel with only 16 people, 7 crew and our guide, Monica. The pax were mostly Brits, with 2 Canadians, 1 yank, and us. It was a great crowd until mid week when we swapped out the canuks and yank and got 4 more aussies who were complete and utter wankers. The sort of people who give travelling aussies a bad name, noone wanted them in their groups as they were just so rude and stupid. not nice to say about fellow aussies, but true.

Anyway, I am not going to bore you with the trivialities here, instead I will let some pics do the talking. BEST holiday we have ever had.

Galapagos Islands Overview

OK, so it is clear that a number of you have no idea where the Galapagos is or what its significance in the World is. So I will do my best to explain.

The Galapagos Islands sites 1000km off the coast of ecuador and it is made up of about 20 islands and 60 largish rocks. The Galapagos Islands straddle the Equator and they sit directly above one of the Earth's hotspots. It is this hotspot that has created the Galapagos islands. They were not there 2 million years ago. Now I know that sounds like a long time ago, but 2 million years is like a 1 day old baby in geological terms.

The islands site at one of the most amazing ocean locations on the planet. It is the meeting point of 3 of the Worlds major ocean currents, coming from Panama, south America and the west. This brings an extrodinary array of marine life and mamals such as penguins. Penguins.... at the equator... think about that for a sec.

The Islands were the base for the Charles Darwins Theory on Evolution. During a 6 week visit on the Beagle he visited the islands and noticed the islands were very yound geologically and that it was impossible for the animals and plant species on the islands to have been developed there as it was all Lava fields and volcanoes.

He surmised that the animals made it to the islands by a rafting system that drifted them to the islands on the currents mentioned above. The majority of land based animals on the islands such as the Iguanas and the tortises have NO natural predators and this makes them have no fear of being eaten. This makes them very tame. They are not afraid of humans either which makes for an amazing wildlife experience.

He also noticed that the animals differed from those on the mainland and even differed from Island to Island in the chain. 30 years later he publised his origin of Species work which theorised that animals evolved to suit their environment, and as such, changed the World and its understanding of Evolution, which until that time had been driven by Creationism theory. This was 1850 something. A long time ago anyway.

To put it simply, the Galapagos Islands is THE only place in the planet to see these species in their own environments without the interference of humans. A visit to the Galapagos Islands is a singular privelige that is one of the most amazing and special things you can do in your life.

We are visiting 8 of the islands on our 8 day trip and are very fortunate to be visiting the islands of Isabella and Fernandina which are the two most active islands (and the newest) in the area. Most tours do not visit these islands as they are so far away.

We have 8 days in this natural wonderland, and it is something Rob has been looking forward to for 10 years and about the same for me.

We are very lucky to be here.