We arrived at Wreck Bay on the island of San Cristobal at 0645 on Wednesday 21^st June. We had not finished securing our anchor when a water taxi arrived alongside bringing a young man who introduced himself as Joseph, a yacht agent. We told him that we had already organized an agent, Boliver and Grace from Naugala. He must have kept a good lookout because he was right there every time a new yacht arrived. Competition must be tough.

There are a number of ways for a yacht to enter Galapagos, all of them expensive! As one yacht skipper said, “Welcome to Galapagos. Hand over your wallet.” We opted to be a yacht in transit which meant that we could stay for 20 days but the boat must stay in the original port of entry, i.e. we could not cruise to other islands or anchorages. The permit to do this costs several hundred American dollars on top of all of the other entry charges.

Our dinghy stayed packed away for our stay and we went ashore in the water taxi. This saved the hassle of having it taken over by sea lions. They were ready to take over any boat to which they could gain access and they can do damage and make a mess. There were plenty of them in and around Wreck Bay.

Lounging on the dock where the water taxis arrived.

Good use of the water-front park.

On our aft deck.

Making use of a neglected boat.

One of our friendly water taxi drivers. "Nowornot" is in the background to the right.

The bay was quite busy with the water taxis, ferries to the other islands and a constant stream of tourist cruise boats and live aboard dive boats. While we were there,  four freighters came in with supplies from Equador. It is a very labour intensive process with everything having to be loaded on to lighters, taken ashore and then loaded on to trucks for distribution. Everything comes from the mainland except for the small amount of fruit and vegetables, meat, fish and chicken produced locally. We were pleasantly surprised by the range, quality and price. Quality of some items may have reflected in the presence of the ships. Chicken was the one thing we found expensive although, judging by its colour, it was corn fed.

Unloading a supply ship onto a lighter. It took a couple of days to unload supplies and to load up garbage and empty crates as well as crates of empty bottles.

The purchase of diesel was interesting. We had to obtain permission from the port captain and Grace arranged this. There are three prices on the island – local, tourist boat and international. We had to pay international and guess which one is the most expensive. For 6USD per gallon, the diesel was delivered to the boat in large jerry cans. There are huge fines if you try to circumvent the system and buy cheap fuel. In such a small place, you cannot do that unnoticed. They have it all sewn up and I guess everybody gets a cut of the profits.

Grace arranged a taxi to take us on a tour of the southern part of the island. Photos will show that better than dialogue.

On Monday 22^nd June we left for the long haul to the Marquesas – over 3000nm.