It’s Sunday Galapagos time and we’re provisioned and ready to go – Marquesas here we come!  We’re just waiting for our agent to get our zarpe (exit papers) organised and all going well should be able to leave late Monday afternoon.  Having had two weeks in the Galapagos we’re more than ready to get to sea again.

 

We spent yesterday morning at the wonderful fresh produce markets buying as much as we could within reason – there is nothing more frustrating than throwing out stuff.  So once we run out it will be tins and frozens.  Yesterday afternoon was spent stowing – wrapping oranges in newspaper, hanging up green bananas and vacuum packing veges for the fridge.  As guavas are cheap, plentiful and delicious I stewed a whole lot for the freezer and also made tomato relish.  We will definitely not starve on this crossing.

 

On Friday we returned from our five day island tour which was absolutely magnificent.  We ticked a few boxes – such as snorkelling with white tip sharks and swimming with the giant turtles – and had a lot of fun doing so.  The tour began on this island (San Cristobal) where we saw nesting frigate birds – the males with their puffed out red chests – and the beautiful blue footed boobies.  On neighbouring Floreana we did a trip up into the highlands to see the giant tortoises – hunted to extinction by the early settlers so another species had to be introduced.  Floreana is where the old whaling boats and sailing ships left their mail in a barrel in Post Office Bay to be collected by other ships heading home.  We checked the mail but there was nothing for New Zealand!

 

Isabela was our favourite island and where we planned to go before pesky officials got in the way.  It was wonderful to visit on an organised tour as there are few things you can do there unaccompanied – you can’t even snorkel in the anchorage!  We had the best snorkelling here – both at Los Tuneles where we got up close with the giant turtles and later as Tintoreles where we saw dozens of white tip reef sharks.  We finished our trip at Santa Cruz visiting the beautiful sandy white Tortuga Bay and the amazing lava tunnels in the highlands.

 

All in all the Galapagos was a fantastic experience and worth the $715 entry fee and $600pp island tour.  We’re glad we opted to do it and not just sail on by as we would have missed something very special.