Yesterday we left Isabella for a motor sail to Santa Cruz which is the most developed of the Galapagos Islands. Isabella although the largest island is still being built! Lots of half finished buildings and when it rains the streets flood but fortunately not the raised pavements. They still need to sort their sewage and drainage systems out as everywhere was a bit wiffy!! Anyway they did have lots of sea lions iguanas and tortoises as well as some cute baby black penguins one of which came swimming by the boat on two occasions! It is surprising to have rain again but at least the decks are now clean!! We will not be in a proper Marina again until we reach Australia so not easy to do things like wash the boat off using dock water. We took a taxi tour in Isabella to see the flamingos and giant tortoise breeding centre and iguana nesting ground plus the famous wall of tears which was built just after WW2 by prisoners of a penal colony and is huge and built of lava pieces.
So now Puerto Ayora in Santa Cruz which is so... Civilised compared to Isabella!! Tourists are very important to the island and lots of souvenir shops and tour operators are based here. We had a lovely dinner last night at Il Giardino restaurant which was first class and could have been served in Harrogate!! The only thing was dinner was USD 60 including tax and service whereas in Harrogate the cost would have been over £100 compared to £40 equivalent here. Not bad eh? Anyway today is Sunday so just having lunch in Isla Grill another delightful restaurant as most shops close on Sundays ( just like it used to be in England)!
We are here in Santa Cruz until we leave for the Marquesas on 4 March. I have even managed to find a professional hair salon before we leave as my hair is in need of attention! The next passage is 3 weeks so must stock up as best we can here so we have enough food to last!!
Everything on the boat OK apart from a red warning light indicating voltage problems on the Generator which concerns Peter but hopefully it is not too serious as we can still charge the batteries OK. Just hope it lasts until we get to Tahiti as this is the next place where boat spares are available. We should be in Tahiti towards end April.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Galapagos
We cannot really believe we are actually here in the lovely Galapagos Islands where there is so much wildlife to see!!
The sail down from Contadura in Las Perlas was slow but by following a more Southerly course Trompeta managed to keep wind until the last day. We crossed the finish line here in San Cristobal at 9.15am local time (6 hours behind UTC) yesterday so today is the first day to explore this island. In the anchorage when we arrived we saw many sea lions sunbathing on little man made platforms and even saw some slither up onto the back of the catamaran Anastasia!! Boats with low sugar scoops at the back are especially vulnerable. Trompeta has a high back end so it is difficult for the sea lions to come onboard!! When we arrived we had to wait until after 3pm to be cleared in by customs and immigration before we were allowed to leave the boat. A total of 9 officials came on board to complete formalities including 2 Police a Port Captain and several others who did not seem to do anything! Everyone here seems to be extremely friendly and welcoming. Galapagos is part of Ecuador and they are devoting a lot of time and money to keeping the islands as natural as possible. There is no litter anywhere and as there are no international flights to the islands there are a limited number of visitors. Tomorrow we have an excursion to Kicker Rock to snorkel and swim ( with sharks!) not sure about this but will see how we get on!!
Just to let you all know before we left Las Perlas we had the prize giving dinner fir leg 1 from St Lucia and Trompeta took 2nd place in her class. Not bad for an old lady! The prize giving for leg 2 will be when we get to Santa Cruz and is on 1 March. We depart for the Marquesas in French Polynesia on 4 March.
The sail down from Contadura in Las Perlas was slow but by following a more Southerly course Trompeta managed to keep wind until the last day. We crossed the finish line here in San Cristobal at 9.15am local time (6 hours behind UTC) yesterday so today is the first day to explore this island. In the anchorage when we arrived we saw many sea lions sunbathing on little man made platforms and even saw some slither up onto the back of the catamaran Anastasia!! Boats with low sugar scoops at the back are especially vulnerable. Trompeta has a high back end so it is difficult for the sea lions to come onboard!! When we arrived we had to wait until after 3pm to be cleared in by customs and immigration before we were allowed to leave the boat. A total of 9 officials came on board to complete formalities including 2 Police a Port Captain and several others who did not seem to do anything! Everyone here seems to be extremely friendly and welcoming. Galapagos is part of Ecuador and they are devoting a lot of time and money to keeping the islands as natural as possible. There is no litter anywhere and as there are no international flights to the islands there are a limited number of visitors. Tomorrow we have an excursion to Kicker Rock to snorkel and swim ( with sharks!) not sure about this but will see how we get on!!
Just to let you all know before we left Las Perlas we had the prize giving dinner fir leg 1 from St Lucia and Trompeta took 2nd place in her class. Not bad for an old lady! The prize giving for leg 2 will be when we get to Santa Cruz and is on 1 March. We depart for the Marquesas in French Polynesia on 4 March.
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