Anchorages are like small villages, albeit with highly transient populations. But like villages there is a daily rhythm. In the early morning we drink tea in the cockpit.
Birgit on Pitufa does her washing her head swiveling to boobies and sea lions as they dive and snort nearby.



Later in the morning Alan on Zebede (a junk rigged schooner) returns from the market, rowing through the anchorage in his handmade dinghy, stopping to chat as he passes by - one day it took him 4 hrs to get back to his boat!




Ellen on WindDancer has just been provisioning and caught a lift back with Phil and Danielle on Sweet Surrender - no need for a gym on a boat. Her husband George has just sent "our" pelican back to us because of its dubious toilet habits.

Some freight to the Galapagos comes by air but most is by sea. Ok, that's the case with most countries, but here there are no docks to speak of and so all goods - I mean Everything - are delivered by a long slow procession of barges that are pushed along by pangas. The main photo is at Isabela. To unload this small ship took 6 barges going non-stop for a day and half. On the other islands with more population it takes 2-3 days.

There is just nothing like blue-footed boobies with their slightly crossed eyes, their waddling dance, and bright blue feet. This one was giving us an exhibition of his talents when we visited Los Tunneles on the south coast of Isabela.

Despite their being referred to as a clown (the Spanish - Bobo) they are magnificent in the water and we could watch them dive all day. At times up to 7 will simultaneously hit the water only a foot from each other. Occasionally one of the birds will let out a whistle before they dive - we are not sure whether this is a warning or a signal to dive - ie diving school for juveniles.






At other times they just watch the world go by - for some considerable time too.

We decided to change the earlier dive post to diving in the Galapagos so we can add a few more pics from other spots.

Our first double dive was at Kicker Rock in San Christobal with Sharksky. The dive was combined with snorkelling at the rock and a nearby beach so there was a mixed group. Its a magnificent location as you can see but the vis was poor and there was a lot of swell. For Kate the memory of the dive is one of sore ears, a foggy mask, and holding on like mad to Paul's hand. We did see our first hammerheads though.




Our second double dive was at Gordon's Rock off east Santa Cruz. This is meant to be one of the best sites in the Galapagos - bar Wolf and Darwin islands to the north. We went with Macaron and Juan Carlos who is an excellent dive master. Vis was ok but not fabulous but the dive was good and we saw a lot of lion seals, sharks (the main photo), and turtles.

Our last 4 dives were with Paco and Julio from Isabela. We first dived on the eastern end of Isla Tortugas, the crescent shaped island off Isabela and there saw our first seahorse (thanks to Julio who owns the dive boat), a dense school of barracuda and more hammerheads. Of course, this is where Paul took this fabulous footage of the turtle. No whale sharks unfortunately.





Our last dive was an exploration of a new site that Paco and Julio were exploring for future tours. It was along the base of Whale mountain on the east coast of Isabela and it was a fabulous dive. Every 5 minutes we had giant manta rays glide overhead, the landscape was vast and interesting and the schools of fish were often dense and rolling in balls.

This trip is a must do. For the first time we felt we were seeing the Galapagos we had imagined before arriving here.



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We sailed to our last anchorage in Galapagos, Puerto Villamil in Isabela, today with a small detour to see Isla Tortugas on the way.



This is the spectacular crescent shaped remains of the volcanic island featured in the Attenborough series. At midday it was sun bleached and a little less impressive but still worthwhile seeing. We will be diving off the island over the next couple of weeks so maybe we will get some better shots then. The anchorage at Puerto Villame is once again distinctly different from San Christobal and Puerto Santa Cruz.



This time we are right on the edge of the national park where blue footed boobies, frigate birds and the Galapagos penguin's are in abundance. We have mangroves to the right of us and reefs all around. Its very layback with few boats and tourists - except in the morning viewing times. A dozen puffer fish and a school of fingerlings have adopted the boat and barracuda fly past and snap up the fingerlings every now and then. Yesterday we had an early morning visit from a sea lion pup. He was peering through the portholes above our heads until we yelled at him. Later a young galapagos penguin decided that whizzing back and forth along our keel was a bit of fun and we also got a good gander at a pelican's throat.