Where do I start with The Galapagos Islands?! We absolutely loved our time on the islands and I couldn't have asked for a better way to celebrate my 30th!

We had heard conflicting opinions on whether we should visit the islands by ourselves or to join an organised cruise. We decided to do both and booked a last minute 4 night/ 5 day cruise. We then visited an another island for 3 days after the cruise. We were lucky enough to be introduced to a friend of friend who happen to be working on Santa Cruz Island as a vet. She was extremely helpful and even did some research for us prior to arriving, so we knew realistically what kind of last minute deal we could get.

On the cruise we visited 4 islands, snorkelled every day and explored each island whilst traveling during the night. Our guide was fantastic and we had a friendly group of people from France, Germany, Switzerland, Holland and America. The captain bought everyone a cocktail for my birthday and the chef made me a cake which was a lovely surprise.

Our absolute highlight was snorkelling with sea lions, we had barely put our heads under the water, when they came swimming over to us and started darting between people and playing chicken with you. They would look you in the eye and swim directly at you to then turn suddenly at the last minute. We also snorkelled with sharks, sea turtles, saw an octopus and lots of tropical fish and starfish.

There was a smart Seal lion on Santa Cruz who had discovered the fish market and much to the tourists delight he would turn up every morning for a free breakfast. Mark and I named him Cecil and I visited him 3 of the 4 mornings we stayed on Santa Cruz.

The abundance of animals and their nonchalant nature is amazing, I have never experience anything like it. The Galapagos Islands is highlight of our trip so far and is our favourite place we have ever visited.