So what have we have been doing? Well, the last 2 days in Academy Bay on Santa Cruz, we found the trail to Las Grietas (the cracks) which was a fantastic swimming hole. You have to take a water taxi within the harbor to the trailhead since there isn't a good place for the dinghy. The trail meanders past the backs of local holels and along beaches for the first part, then moves into the cactus & lava rock fields for the rest. Then you come to this fault line, as Nathan, our resident marine geologist says. It is a combination of fresh & salt water so the bottom is salt and the top brackish, all of it a beautiful jade green. It is long and perfect for lap swimming. When you dive down, the water is super warm. At the end of the first pool there are a few rocks to scramble over and then another longer pool with no one around opens up so we really had the place to ourselves. We liked it so much we went back on our last day. We also stumbled upon a restaurant called The Rock which had a sign out for a ceviche special so we all went in and got some. It was the most delicious ceviche we've ever had and it came out all stacked up on an oyster shell (I love stacks). We really had some good food in Academy Bay.
From Galapagos
The trip to Isabela island took most of a day and it was a motor. There's rarely much of any wind in this area given this latitude of less than 1 degree. The anchorage is much more protected and indeed, there are penguins zooming around the anchorage. It'll be practically impossible to get a picture of them though, they are just too fast! These are the small penguins like what we're used to seeing at the Boston Aquarium. A couple of days ago, we went over to a beautiful lagoon near the anchorage that is a popular place to see penguins. Jon & I saw two, Tim & Nathan zero. So we'll have to go back to prove they can be seen there. We saw beautiful purple starfish, pretty cushion stars, small tropical fish, sea cucumbers - things that like the rocky, tidal bottom that makes up the lagoon. But the most interesting thing was the highway of swimming marine iguanas headed back to shore from their day spot out on the outer rocks. They were all swimming in a line, quiet & peaceful. You can watch them from underwater- their heads are above water and they just swim along using their tail, no so much their legs. They don't really see underwater so if they're coming up on a shallow rock, they just bump into it and then start using their legs to climb over. I watched one bump into an eagle ray that way.
From Galapagos
On the first day we were here, we all trudged out to the flamingo pond on yet another lovely trail/boardwalk. It was mid-day since we spent the morning getting checked in to this island, so there were only a couple flamingos in the pond. The path continued on to this island's tortoise breeding center. This one is the best of the several we've been to. It has LOADS of tortoises of all ages and an AIR CONDITIONED museum! I would really like to set up camp in there for a few days! The grounds are so pretty and the stonework for the corrals so thoughtfully done. One of the pairs of tortoises was mating- the first we've seen and although I felt sort of like an intruder watching their act, it was interesting to see how clunky of an operation it is. As you can see from the picture, the female is busy eating her cactus leaf while the male is taking his task very seriously. We've started taking little videos with our camera and took one of this which we'll try to put up on Picasa if we can figure out how to do it.
I learned a few things at the museum. One is that for breeding purposes, the staff person who harvests the eggs for artificial incubation needs to keep each egg in the very same position it was initially found in or else the egg will die. Also, it takes 100 years or more for a tortoise to become large like the ones we see here and that of course is more than any human lifetime. They can live to be 150. All of the tortoises in the world like these are only found on islands. This breeding center in particular is very productive. Hundreds of new babies are hatched each year.
From Galapagos

Yesterday we took the Sierra Negra/Chico volcano tour. The Galapagos has a lot of rules & regs and limiting the tourist impact. And why not? They've preserved this unique spot on the earth for the things we value and you can't get the wildlife interaction available here anywhere else as far as we know. We've spent $1000 in fees for us & our boat to be here but it's been worth it. We need to clear in & out of every harbor and meet up with our boat agent/liaison frequently. You must use an agent. We've had a great time but it'll also be nice to move on to less regulated countries where we have more freedom to roam about on our own. But here, for certain things, you have to have a guide or be on a tour. So we wanted to see the volcano- the second largest caldera in the world. It was a day trip, set up by our agent. It turned out there were the four of us and about 50 of our closest friends, half of which were on horses. We'd chosen to walk up the trail- we need our exercise before this long passage coming up! We had great weather- it didn't rain on us which is nothing short of a miracle, but it did rain on the lower areas of the trail while we were at the top. The crater was interesting in it's vastness- 10km- the contrast of the green perimeter with the black interior was neat to see. The last eruption was in 2005, and there are some fumaroles in the area, but not in the vicinity of our trail. As we got higher, the scenery became more of a moonscape, with distant ocean views. The trail was very rutted with clay like dirt. It took a little less than 2 hrs to reach the top. On the way up, we were told that some of the group had an afternoon tour booked so we would have to move briskly to meet their time constraints. That meant that once we got to the top, we had a few minutes to snap photos and then we were waved at to start making our way down- us & all the inexperienced riders on horses.

I don't think I have to say that I was not impressed with the trip down, nor being passed with & splashed with mud by hoards of horses after being rushed down from the top. I've already been kicked by Central American horses twice and I'd rather not have another, thank you. It would have been much better if the horses had their own section of trail or if we could've gone at our own pace independently. I also saw 2 people fall off of their horses. Nearly as soon as we reached the bottom, we jumped in the truck and rocketed down the mountain to meet the time goal.

We made it back in one piece and reflected on how we think we're all set with volcano tours for now! And we also reflected on how incredible our summer national parks trip was in terms of breathtaking scenery. It was the kind of scenery that makes my eyes water. And you can experience it on your own terms.

So, given our wonderful group tour experience yesterday, we signed up for another one! What choice do we have? We only have a few days left here and most of the tours we've taken have been really nice. This one is a snorkeling tour of some offshore arches that have interesting features & sealife. There will be much fewer people on the boat and it should be fun. Today, we've reserved most of the day for boat projects. There are a few things we need to check before setting sail later this week.