Here are a few more of our photos from Galapagos

 

 
  
  
  
  
  
  

We arrived in Isabella after a pleasant crossing from Santa Cruz at four in the afternoon on Friday. We weave through the shallow reefs to an anchorage off the main and only town, Villamil. It’s a beautiful anchorage. The ocean swell crashes onto the beach on one side of the bay,  we are tucked behind some small low rocks that protect the eastern side and in the distance are the rolling volcanic hills that cover the Island. 

We are, as always in Galapagos, dependent on water taxis that, as we are to discover, are few and far between in Isabella but this evening we are lucky and one picks us up after ten minutes. Nothing can land through the waves near the beach in Villamil so we are dropped at a dock a fifteen minute walk from town. The path in is adorned with flags from around the world welcoming visitors and the road is of smart new paving stones. As we reach town however the roads turn to sand, there is hardly anybody around, it feels like we are walking onto the set of a Spaggetti Western, we expect a gun slinging cowboy to come around the corner at any moment. But of course the town is actually full of the same friendly people of Galapagos as we have met on the other islands and a mix of backpackers and middle aged adventurers.

  
  
There are plenty of small restaurants and bars and we sit down at one watching the sunset behind the hills looking out over one of the best beaches we have ever been on. A curve of soft white sand a mile so so long, interspersed with the typical jet black volcanic rocks of the Galapagos. Being on a great beach with the surf rolling in always lifts our spirits, we rather like it here.

  
You can’t explore much without being on tour, so we join a group for a snorkel around ‘las Tunnels’. Galapagos was formed by volcanic activity, in places as the molten rock cooled the outside formed a crust with the lava still running underneath, as the lava runs out this forms caverns and tunnels which over time have collapsed and eroded to create a unique landscape.

  
The sea has began to invade these areas and as everywhere here, forms a haven for wildlife. We are not good at tours we rebel at being herded and the visibility wasn’t brilliant but even we had to admit that this spot made for a gob-smacking  snorkel. Where else in the world would you see a school of golden Rays glide serenely over a giant green turtle, a pelican posing with penguins, an eight inch tall sea horse nestling in the weeds, large marble rays and sleepy white tip sharks all in one place.

  
The Galapagos has produced so many brilliant photos, I will publish them in an extra post. We set out for Marquesas so will be at sea for about three weeks and the blog will be restricted to text. The AIS signal will no longer reach land after about fifty miles but you can watch our progress at http://my.yb.tl/sailrayatracking/.

We stood on the deck and waved goodbye to the thirty two yachts on the World ARC leaving for the Marquesas Islands, with mixed emotions. The previous morning we had left San Cristabal for the second island on our visit to the Galapagos, Santa Cruz, in the hope that we would catch the rally just before they left. We were keen to see our friends on the Oyster 56, Into The Blue, we had met early on in our mutual ‘around the world’ planning phases, had crossed the Atlantic with them but as they were part of the World Rally we hadn’t seen each other since St Lucia. We had a great evening together discussing our experiences in Panama, looking forward to the trips ahead and discussing the pros and cons of life afloat. The time together with our friends and other participants reminded us of the support and camaraderie that travelling in a rally brings, we had considered joining the World ARC at the beginning of our travels but they whiz around the world in just sixteen months, we plan to wander around much more slowly.

We had had a nice few days in San Cristabal. The small town of Baquerizo Moreno made up for its lack of sophistication by its incredible friendliness and the National Park have done a good job of providing well marked paths for us to discover. These meandered through the cacti, palo santo trees and lava fields to beaches and cliffs where you could see the plentiful  wildlife. The paths were challenging enough to give you the pretence of an intrepid explorer but without requiring too much effort in the tropical heat or distracting you from the surrounding views. The preservation of the flora and wildlife is admirably the top priority of the people here and they work hard to look after thier unique environment.

 

 
 We climbed up through the hills north of Wreck Bay to the cliffs of Cerro de las Tijeratas overlooking a rocky cove where if you climbed down to a wooden platform the snorkelling was apparently very good. Unfortunately there was a big swell hitting the island, great for the surfers riding out beyond the reefs and the sea crashing onto the cliffs made for an amazing sight but meant entry for us in through the rocks was impossible. This cove was the first landing site of Charles Darwin and a huge statue stands in recognition of the world changing insights he drew from his visits to the islands. 

  
The platform where he stands gives fantastic views of the north coast and the thousands of birds that nest in the cliffs. We saw frigate birds, gulls and to our great excitement a blue footed booby. We met bobbies sailing between Grenada and Bonaire, they are incredible divers that plunge straight down into the sea to catch their prey. In the Galapagos there are three varieties one of which that has vivid blue feet. Their mating ritual involves them proudly raising these bright feet as high as possible and much like the tortoises yesterday showing off their long necks, the highest foot attracts the most females. The girls here obviously have a thing for lofty achievers.

 

 
The next day we took a taxi a few kilometres to La Loberia Beach where we spotted Galapagos herons and red beaked tropic birds. Clambering higher across boulders of lava, again we saw blue footed boobies but this time also large marine iguanas, dozens of them basking in the morning sun raising thier body temperature for the day ahead. 

 

 
Feeling that our own body temperatures were rather too high we walked back down to the beach to cool off. We had a great snorkel, amongst the rocks we saw a large school of yellow tailed surgeon fish, huge parrot fish and three turtles. The amazing thing about the wild life here is that they are unafraid of you, everything including the birds, sea lions and turtles allow you to approach them. The largest of the turtles about a metre across allowed us to watch him feed and then swam with Rick for about ten minutes. 

  
Over the next few days we shall be exploring Santa Cruz, however our tourist hats must be mixed with our working hats as we begin preparations to follow our friends across the 3000 miles of Pacific Ocean to Marquesas. 

The novelty of the sea lions on the swim deck wore off abruptly when in the middle of the night I popped my head up to check all was good with our anchor, only to discover a huge male lounging in the cockpit on our cushions. That he had managed to get up the back and on to the deck was a bit of a shock but we were to discover they are a lot more acrobatic than we thought. He was very reluctant to give up his comfy spot but he eventually moved back to the stern when I shoo him away. However he refused to retreat down to the swim deck, as I walked towards him he leapt towards me, barking and baring his teeth. I jumped back with a scream, grabbed the boat hook and a faux battle commenced, eventually after a few threatening stabs towards him I finally persuaded him to back down. I blocked the gate as best I could with buckets and tied lines across between the stantions. The most disconcerting thing was not my ten minute fight on the aft deck but the fact that none of my fellow crew members so much as turned over in their beds! I returned to nightmares of one falling through the hatch on top of us while we slept. What we ask ourselves would you do with 100kgs of angry sea lion below decks?
Rick tried tying a criss-cross of ropes across the swim deck but they just wiggled between it all until they found a comfy spot to sleep and then complained noisily when they had to untangle themselves to get back into the water. So then he tried hanging all seven of our large fenders off the stern but they just push them aside and slide underneath enjoying the shade they provided. However it does seem to prevent them getting up on deck, so we have come to an uneasy truce.

In search of less awkward wildlife we took a tour to the highlands. Here there is a fresh water lake in the caldera of an old volcano, El Junco lake. There is rumoured to be lots of wading bird life and extrodinary views across the island, unfortunately for us, we climbed up into the clouds and could see nothing more than a round body of water. We descended back down to our taxi and continued on to the Giant Tortoise Breeding Centre, La Galapaguera. These lumbering beasts are truly gigantic, many of them sixty or seventy years old. Each island has its own indigenous sub-species, all of which became endangered and some species extinct after years of providing fresh meat for passing ships and latterly by the introduction of goats that ravaged their food source. Most of the goats have now been irradicated and the breeding centres are making good progress at re-establishing sustainable populations. We spent a fascinating hour or two watching them wander about there large park. We found a large group at a feeding station, two of which were competing for the attention of a smaller female. To show you are top dog each tortoise stretches his neck as high as possible, the highest stretch wins the girl.

To finish the morning we stopped for a cooling swim at a beautiful cove, the waves crashed against the rocks and for a moment we almost could have been in Cornwall. Reality soon hit as a seal lion emerged through the waves and called for her pup, that emerged from the rocks and excitedly waddled towards her, the rocks themselves appeared almost alive as they heaved with a thousand small black crabs and then we realised some were actually alive they were small marine Iguanas.

 

 
We returned to a busy Wreck bay, close in are thirty or so local fishing boats, to the east is the navel base and a couple of grey navy vessels, the yachts at anchor had increased to ten boats and there were a dozen small cruise boats busily transferring passengers on and off. All along the shore, on every rock, inch of beach, step and even sea front road are hundreds of sleeping sea lions and between them all buzzes three or four water taxis or ‘Taxi Aquatic’. We can call them up on the radio, and in the absence of anywhere to land our dingy, use them to ferry us to and fro from the dock, a dollar per person per trip.