First thing in the morning, the officials arrived. All 12 of them. The paperwork and expense involved in going to the Galapagos is unbelievable. We know many cruisers who give it a miss for this very reason. Anyhow, we now found out that the diver we had hired in Panama hadn’t done a good enough job and the bottom of the boat had to be cleaned again. This involved hiring another diver, and motoring 60 miles offshore out of the marine park to do it. To put it in perspective, it takes us around 12 hours to motor 60 miles and then the same back, plus the time taken to do the job.

With that done we had a couple of weeks in San Cristobal. A lovely little town - very quiet and relaxed. Water taxi available to take us from the anchorage to the town at any time, but tourism is obviously the only show in town. The first trip was to the highlands, climbing a volcano to see a lake in the crater, then to a breeding centre for the giant tortoises which has been set up before releasing them back into the wild. After wandering around in the heat for a while, we suddenly came across a group of them near a pond. They are huge. Got some great photos, which wasn’t too difficult as most were asleep, and those that weren’t were only moving very slowly!

We decided to brush up on our diving, so went on a refresher course, and were both pleased that we could remember what to do. We then arranged a trip to the north of the island at Punta Pitt, where we did a hike in the morning and a couple of dives in the afternoon. Brilliant day. The scenery is absolutely stunning, very volcanic but beautiful (and very hot). We saw blue footed boobies nesting right next to the path, and red footed boobies in the bushes a little further off. We then had our first dive off the boat, and amongst other things saw some sea lions, and some enormous eagle rays. There were quite a number of other rays as well,and everything here seems to be huge. The highlight of the second dive was seeing some white tipped sharks up close. They were resting on the seabed under an overhang in the rock. At least 2 metres long, and no doubting they were sharks! A huge turtle swam in front of me so close I nearly swam into it. I don’t know who was more surprised, but it turned round to have a good look. An excellent experience, and now looking forward to diving at Kicker Rock, where apparently you could dive among hammerhead sharks.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be. The next day we were told that due to the coronavirus the islands were closing down and everyone had to leave. Really disappointing, but we felt for the locals, as everything is geared for tourism. There was a long queue at the bank, and nobody knows how long it will go on for. Our concern was to get our exit papers, and stock up on supplies for the next leg - the Marquesas in French Polynesia, 3000 miles and around a month at sea.We’ve just about done everything now, so tomorrow we will set off on the longest leg so far

We only got to visit one island, but what a unique and beautiful place. Like nowhere else I’ve ever been.