We stayed aboard yesterday evening after checking in - just saw no reason to water taxi in as it was getting dark. Academy Bay has a bad rep for being really rolly, so we set a stern anchor out to starboard to keep the bow pointed into the swell. There are more sailboats here - Norr from Denmark, Marnia from Germany (which is cruising with Freydis), Sea Pearl from Germany who shouted advice to us as we set the stern anchor, and Invictus, a Beneteau 56 whose Australian crew we met in Panama at the restaurant. The anchorage is tightly packed, with little room to swing, and we are anchored practically on top of Marnia. There is also a tourist schooner called the Beagle in the harbor, which appears to be set up for actual sailing from island to island.

Despite our efforts to avoid the roll, the wind swung improbably around to the north in the morning, and we were beam to the roll for few hours. Fortunately, this did not cause us to bump into anyone. Then the south wind came back and we resumed our former alignment.

We went ashore mid morning for a random walk around Pto Ayora, the big city of the Galapagos. Santa Cruz is the primary tourist town of the Galapagos, as the largest airport is here and many of the cruise boats depart from the island. If San Cristobal was the Block Island of the Galapagos and Isabela was some sleepy California surfer town, Puerto Ayora is perhaps the Nantucket or Bar Harbor - bigger, noisier, more expensive, more upscale, more fine clothing stores and expensive art galleries, but also even more tourist oriented, if that were possible.

We walked up to scope out the municipal market where we will provision Saturday morning before departing, then walked back down the hill and signed up at a dive shop for a dive tomorrow at North Seymour island. We then found a menu del dia in a nicely finished restaurant, Villa Luna (vegetable soup, calamari, rice, and salad all for five dollars). Robin wanted to see the Darwin Research Center while I wanted to take a hike to Playa Tortuga, so we went to the research center first and went for yet another tortoise nursery tour and a visit to the museum and library, before heading back to town for the beach hike.

On our way back through town, we found the only bookstore in the Galapagos (many people do not know it exists) and picked up copies of Darwin’s The Voyage of the Beagle and Vonnnegut’s Galapagos. When we got to the beach trailhead at four, the park ranger told us that we should not go up the trail because the beach would close at five and it would take us an hour to get there, but the other American tourist behind us (a flight attendant from Washington State) convinced us we had plenty of time to walk there before the beach closed.

And so we did, trampling down the paver stone trail through another Opunta cactus tree forest. There was a red flag and signs warning of dangerous currents at the beautiful and mostly deserted beach, but that did not stop us from plunging into the wave wash in the brilliant blue water near shore.

We were supposed to go back and get fitted for SCUBA gear at five or so, so we did not linger until the beach closing but tramped back to town and got our SCUBA gear.

We went to check out the supermarket to find something for dinner. Also, I wanted to start stocking up on beer for the passage. You can only buy bottled bear in the Galapagos, no cans (by law) which meant a heavy load to carry to the boat. Also, each bottle carries a stiff deposit, which varies by store - on Isabela, they were demanding a $1.50 per bottle deposit. Javier had assured us we could buy beer by the case at the supermarket, but I saw only singles. When I asked, the clerk went to get a box from the back and made a case for me. The deposit was only 50 cents per bottle. But you can only return your bottles to the same store, and you must bring your receipt. So we will arrive in the Marquesas with a bilge full of non-returnable return bottles.

When we got back to the boat there was a message on my WhatsApp from the SCUBA dive center, advising that all dives tomorrow had been cancelled by the tour companies in protest of high fuel prices.. Which may be just as well, as Marnia is leaving tomorrow and we may have to move the boat in the morning to allow them to retrieve their anchor.