Bye Bye Baby, Baby Goodbye
Rich's 2025 World ARC PatBon Blog
Richard Hurd
Fri 7 Mar 2025 03:23
The island of Santa Cruz is very different to both the other two islands we’ve been to. Puerto Ayora is a vibrant town, with bustling streets, shops, bars, restaurants and plenty of tourists arriving and leaving for tours to other islands. It is the main town in Galapagos and after the other places, a bit of an assault on the senses. We arrived on Friday 28th Feb and after getting some boat jobs done, Paula and I headed to a small rustic cabin in the highlands, up near the top of the central volcano. We had hoped for better, especially at the price, but Rene and Ana were so welcoming and friendly, we didn’t have the heart to moan or complain.
After meeting up with several of the ARC fleet for dinner, for Paula to say cheerio, we spent the next day walking around the volcano, with wild tortoises roaming amongst the cultivated fields and cattle. A very strange sight indeed, but totally at ease with us being so close. It is a very lush island, with forests, fields, market gardens and quite heavily populated in areas. Being the Carnival weekend, stalls and bunting was out for the evening parties. We also walked through a huge lava tunnel and saw huge craters where liquid lava had flowed away leaving a chamber and then the roof collapsed leaving a crater probably 300 meters across. This happened many thousands of years ago, so nothing to be worried about - honest🫣!
The following day, it was destination airport, to drop Paula off for her flight back to the UK. Not an easy trip, with a domestic flight to Guiyacol on the coast of Ecuador, then a flight to Amsterdam and then Heathrow, so a challenge for Paula, who isn’t the best of travellers! After a teary farewell - well I won’t see her until the end of May, I had to get back to the boat to get some jobs done and also start the provisioning for the voyage ahead.
First job was to repair the mast track that had broken during the trip down from Panama. We had tried previously, but the anchorages were just too rolly to do anything up the mast. You needed both arms and legs just to cling on up there, so no limbs left to do the job. Anyway, perfect day and job done, so pleased with that.
The next couple of days were spent provisioning and also going to the skippers briefing to learn about leg 4 to Hiva Oa in the Marquesas. Sadly not a great weather forecast, meaning that we’d have to head on a more southerly course from Santa Cruz, before heading west to Hiva Oa. Also little wind and plenty of rain for the first 3 or 4 days and HOT!
Hmmmm, wasn’t it a bit like that on Leg 3 from Panama?
You don’t see these road signs in the UK🤣
Heading into a Lava tunnel