March 22, 2008
We have been busy getting the boat ready to leave and trying to see as much of the Galapagos as we can. We weren’t able to get to any more of the islands because we had to stay aboard to make sure we got our fuel filled up, our water topped up, etc. We did go to see the giant turtles the first day we were here, then yesterday we went back to see the land iguanas. These animals are unbelievable!
One day we walked into a spot called Las Grietas. The water from the highlands trickles down and meets with the sea water which seeps through the rocks. There is a great swimming hole that is brackish water, part sweet water, part salt. The spot is only about 15 feet wide, the sides are 40 feet tall and it is about 100 meters long. We swam down to the end and stopped and hung onto the edge and watched the kids jump and dive into the water. Barry would have loved to join them but he couldn’t manage to climb up the lava walls, too bad.
Yesterday we walked along a gorgeous pathway into Tortuga Bay. The path was 2.5 km long and I was worried that Barry would hurt himself walking that far, but he didn’t complain, but then again he rarely does. We got absolutely drenched as we set out on the path, but it is so warm it was a relief to be wet. What a beach, it was the nicest sand beach I have seen in quite awhile. There were people surfing there but it didn’t look as if the waves were very good. (I am by no means an wave expert, but from the little Graeme has taught me about them they didn’t look great) There were a stand of cacti at one end of the beach that actually looked like a forest.
We rented bicycles for the day and toured around town. We checked out how the locals live. There were a number of unfinished buildings, similar to Mexico, but everywhere on this island it is spotlessly clean. They are very good about putting their trash where it belongs and recycling as well.
Today I went scuba diving again. I went out to a spot called Gordon Rocks. It is known as a world class diving area because you can see hammerhead sharks. When we arrived at the rocks, the dive master said that we may not get to see the hammerheads because the currents were not strong today and they come there to swim in the currents. It was amazing; we saw a school of about 40 of them. They were huge and quite threatening and ugly to look at, very graceful as they swam by, just a flip of their bodies and they would disappear into the deep. I felt like I was in a movie, holding on to a rock and peering over a ledge and they would appear out of the blue. WOW. The visibility is amazing here as well; you can see the bottom in over 40 feet of water. Besides the sharks we saw sea turtles, sea lions, spotted eagle rays and lots of fish. One parrot fish even had a sea urchin in its mouth; one of the other divers saw him eat it off the rocks.
Barry spent the morning at the twice weekly market buying fresh fruit and veggies for our trip. Boy was there ever a lot of stuff to be put away when I got back to the boat; it was tough finding space for it all. Barry said he could have really used my help with the shopping but I could not resist the trip out to a famous diving spot. I guess I should have picked a different day but my nose had been running so I was worried my ears would not co-operate under water. (You can tell there is a lot of guilt running around in my head) Bob arrives tomorrow and we have a little more shopping to do and then we will need to tidy up the boat and then we should be off sometime on Tues. 3 more sleeps and then the Milk Run!!!!!!
P.S. Happy Easter everyo