Galapagos Islands

This will be difficult to write. It really is hard to explain this place in words, but I will try.
Heading into Ecuador, a lot of people had not said much about the country, focusing mainly on giving me tips on Peru and Colombia. Any advice I got was usually negative comments regarding Quito. So I thought about my options, knowing that my easier route from Peru to Colombia was via Ecuador, or, flying direct from one to the other. I preferred the option of at least visiting Ecuador, so looked up flights to Galapagos, and to my surprise, the tickets were cheap!
So hurray! I'm of to the Galapagos and once I arrived I had realised I made a big mistake! I should have booked much more time there then I did (actually a theme of Ecuador, as I loved Quito also).
So the best thing to do was to stick to doing activities based only on the island I flew onto. This meant giving at least some time in one place instead of spreading my time out a seeing virtually nothing.
Driving from the airport across the island of Santa Cruz demonstrated the uniqueness of these islands almost immediately. The north was quite barren with a lot of volcanic rock and some vegetation, kind of like parts of Tongariro national park. The middle of the island was the highlands as you travel up the volcano  (dormant). This area was wet with plenty of vegetation or pasture lands. The lowlands to the south had more of a tropics feel to it and seemed to be the direction that bad weather traveled from. The other islands also have their own different ecosystems with 2 of the islands having active volcanoes.
The greatest thing I discovered about the island is just how much wildlife there is, and the lack of fear they have of people just wandering around. We are not seen as a threat to them. This includes the animals in the sea. I went diving, and the sharks don't care, the turtles come right up to you to check themselves in your mask, the sealions play, fish continue what they are doing. Really quite remarkable. From talking to others, this was exactly the same for snorkeling. In fact, as a snorkeler, you have a very high chance of seeing sharks, turtles, penguins, mantarays, marine iguanas and sealions. The benefit divers have is seeing hammerheads, dolphins, whale sharks, and other things that live in the more open sea. I also watched a pod of about 50 dolphins do flips alongside the boat, saw galapagos penguins standing, and species of ray jumping up out of the water.
Without even diving, at night on the town pier you can see baby sharks and sting rays, and a few sealions play around and I even saw a turtle swim past.
Being in Galapagos, there are two must do things that may seem a bit boring, if you do not understand the scientific significance. One is to see the giant tortoises in the wild, and each island has its own subspecies, or had... You can of course go to the research centre to see them, but they are very young ones and do not show all the behaviours you will see in the wild.
The other thing to do is to try and spot any variations in the finches. I was only on the one island, but managed to see a couple of different finches.
The islands are a magical place with an abundance of animals. I tried to see as many as I could in just a few days, but it's tough. There is so much! Was glad I got a taster, but would certainly have the islands on my list as a place I have to return too. Lots more islands to see. Anyone traveling to South America needs to consider this as a must do. Even on a tight budget, it is worth sacrificing other things to go.