What a place this is!!!!

We are anchored up in Santa Cruz - in Puerto Ayrora on its southern side. Its a bit of a rolly anchorage but its safe enough. We have a stern anchor out to help with the rolling when the wind changes direction. The best bit about this place so far - apart from all the animals and creatures- is MATES!!! So many of our friends are here and its great to see them! We also have lots of little shark mates under the boat which are great to see as well!

Once we arrived we contacted the agent and he arranged for the parade of officials to begin. He had given us a 20 min warning which meant we had a little time to catch up with our friends from Sula who came to say hello. As they left us they mentioned that 'out bottom' was looking a little dirty...... this is not good news when you have just arrived in the Galapagos as it has to be clean as to pass the inspection. Nick quickly jumped in the water and checked the bottom - covered in baby gooseneck barnacles - DISASTER!! This would mean us being sent back out to sea.... not ideal for one night - and would involve us bouncing around out at sea cleaning the bottom (again!)..... Luckily our agent only showed up with Immigration and Customs and we checked in. He assured us the diver would be there 11am the following morning to check. We thanked our lucky stars, enjoyed a fabulous roast dinner from Sula and got up at dawn to do some illicit bottom cleaning. After we got out of the water I asked Nick to check in my ear as it was a bit tickly..... sure enough a little crab had decided that my ear hole might make a good little safe cave after being evicted haha. The diver showed up at 11am and exclaimed 'muy bien' and asked us with a sceptical look on his face when we last cleaned the bottom..... '4 days ago we chimed....' haha. *

So anyway we have been enjoying ourselves here. We only got the 1 port option for the boat so have decided to explore the other islands by using the ferries. While we have been in Santa Cruz we have been able to do some fun stuff. One day we hired bikes and got a taxi up to the volcano on the island and biked all the way back down hill - stopping to visit the lava tubes and craters. We were also able to go to the tortoise sanctuary and laugh at the clumsy baby tortoises. Another day we walked out to a large brackish fissure where you could snorkel - the water was amazing and there were so many fish. Even some marine iguanas. We also managed to squeeze in some surfing on Tortuga beach which was good fun. So we have been keeping ourselves busy.

After our island exploring we will do a tour with one of the other boats to visit Pinzon island - one you cant see by ferry or yacht. We will also spend some time catching up with the other boats and provisioning before heading off in 2 weeks or so.  

*Bit of a disclaimer here, as marine biologists we understand the process and risks of introduced species. We had cleaned the bottom 4 days out - we gave it a good check over and there was nothing there. They have plenty of this species of barnacle in the Galapagos so we weren't too worried.