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.
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