Saturday
After a delicious sleep we woke to an overcast gloomy morning. Our agent Bolivar arrived promptly at 8am to collect our passports, and then returned at 9.30am with 6 officials with him. Not sure who they all were, but there was someone from immigration, a naval office, a quarantine official, a diver and two other persons. The diver went under the boat to check it was clean and the Quarantine and naval officer came inside to inspect various items such as medical kit, fire extinguishers, radar etc. The Quarantine officer was very fastidious and had me unpacking a pile of provisions as he inspected everything with a torch light, studying the pasta and rice and stating that there were weevils. I couldn't see a thing and it looked fine to me but I didn't argue. At the end of all that. he simply stated that he recommended we eat the rice and pasta soon before buying fresh! However, it looks like the boat will be fumigated but this seems to be a routine procedure. Not long after they left Bolivar's son arrived with the diesel we had ordered and he helped Neil siphon it into the tank and jerry cans. After that we were free to explore and we called a water taxi and headed ashore.
The town is very interesting and an effort has been made with interesting sculptures, attractive wooden fencing, bridges and seats. Seals are everywhere- on the seats, on the boats, on the dock and the beaches. They seem very comfortable around humans and very playful, playing tug a war with bits of weed, and tossing plastic bottles around in a game. We had a good traditional Ecuadorean lunch for the grand sum of $6.00 each and explored the Interpretive Centre which gave a good history of Galapagos, and then headed to the beach to watch the seals and eat grilled plantain.
Sunday
The sun was out to day and everything looked glorious. We grabbed our snorkel gear and went on a 2 hour hike to a pretty little snorkel beach. The water was so refreshing and we had a invigorating swim with two seals who seemed fascinated by us and were very playful. I was afraid they would bite, so was a bit nervous but it made my day. Afterwards we walked to a nearby beach and found numerous large marine iguanas, one swimming in the water and others basting on the rocks and beach. Neil climbed up a lighthouse and was surprised to find a seal sleeping on the top. How it clambered up the stairs is a mystery! Back to the town we walked and found a small supermarket to do a bit of shopping and now back on board for siestas.
Monday
We made our way into the little town and found most shops closed. A small protest demonstration was on the go and it turned out the shopkeepers were striking regarding the cost of imported goods.
Tuesday
Collected the laundry and found the municipal market. No tomatoes anywhere but managed to find a fresh chicken, eggplant, cucumber and pineapple. We had lunch at a restaurant and then took a taxi to the beach on the other side of the airport. The current was very strong and a red flag was flying advising no swimming, so we got the taxi back and swam off the boat. A yacht arrived this afternoon, so now there are four in total.
Wednesday
We hired a taxi to do an island tour. We first stopped at El Progresso and visited the giant tree there, complete with treehouse all set up for backpackers (fridge, bathroom, sundeck etc) - amazing. We could climb down the tree trunk to a cellar like room too complete with toilet! The tree was huge and very old.
Our next stop was at the top of a dormant volcano (el junco). After trudging up a steep hill with hundreds of steps we arrived at the lake on the top. Unfortunately a mist moved over the lake pretty quickly so we were unable to see any bird life or anything much really.
Next we arrived at the tortoise sanctuary. Tortoises had been brought here from the north of the island to start a breeding programme, and we saw tortoises who were very old and large (up to 90 years old) and the new born tortoises in the nursery. Very cute. The large tortoises put on quite a display for us with some argie barging and copulation going on, with lots of noise in the process!
On we went to the beach at the end of the road. A fifteen minute walk took us to a pretty little beach with white squeaky sand and black rocks. It wasn't good for snorkelling but we had a refreshing swim before returning to the taxi and back to the boat.
Tomorrow we head to the next island in the Galapagos group, Santa Cruz. It will be a 7 hour motor sail so we should get there in good time.