Santa Cruz

We have spent the last week in Santa Cruz, the most populated island of the Galapagos. We had low expectations as we have enjoyed the less commercial islands and had had a great two weeks in the wonderful Isabella with the penguins but were pleasantly surprised when we arrived here. It has a very picturesque town, very “Banff like” with lots of trees, and upscale buildings and stores. Some of the restaurants and hotels have “Banff like” prices—we did enquire the cost of a room in a gorgeous hotel on a beach which was $250 a night –but that did include breakfast and taxes!!! After never paying more than $30 anywhere we went in Ecuador this was definitely another world.
The island is more lush and tropical than the other islands as the volcanic activity was much earlier.
We traveled from Isabella with Betsy and Richard on Qayaq—our traveling companions on and off since Mexico.
We did a tour to the highlands to see the tortoises in the wild—I promise no more tortoise pictures after this blog—the large one with Ken shows the size of these amazing animals It is about 90 years old. We had a guide who we feel was having his first day on the job, firstly he left several of us behind for an hour or so as we looked for the tortoises and then as we walked to the tunnels which was the second part of the tour he took off up the hill on his own at warp speed. We finally found the tunnels ourselves—no guide?? After we walked through the tunnels the wrong way in the dark—the light switch was at the other end he arrived in great consternation having been lost himself. Luckily boy scouts Ken and Richard had flashlights so we were able to make our way through the huge tunnels which had been created by lava flows. We found out later that the more than one hour walk we had taken to the tunnels was meant to be by taxi.
We spent a lot of time in the typical search of all stores for supplies to take us to the Marquesas—yeast was found after searching many tiendas—the last lot I had bought looked suspiciously like it was growing bugs!!! Chicken breasts were found by walking into many stores as was ground beef. The market on Saturday morning starts at 6am and we got there by 7 30am which to us seemed an ungodly hour to shop but apparently is picked over by 8 30am. We are taking advantage of the last of the cheap prices—we have been told that a bag of limes is $15 --$1 here. We filled all of our jerry cans with fuel—at $1 02 a gallon. We bought enough jerry cans to give us 50 extra gallons--$7 in Polynesia!!
We bought a small generator as ours needs a new part—Polynesia??? We had an electrical mechanic on board to clean up our solenoids of out starter motors so everything is working at present.
We took a trip to Los Griettas which involved a 30 minute walk from a gorgeous beach through the salt flats to a series of lava tubes. You swim through the beautiful land locked canyons with a mix of salt and fresh water which is incredibly refreshing and wonderful.
The mechanic who had come to do our solenoids had invited us for lunch with his family on Sunday. We, along with Betsy and Richard were picked up at 10am and taken to his house where he with his wife and lovely 12 and 16 year old daughters live. It is a little out of town in a lovely garden setting. We chatted with him while his wife spent the next 2 hours in the kitchen preparing lunch. We felt a little embarrassed but they were determined to be incredibly hospitable. After lunch we all piled into their truck and along with a nephew drove to a lovely beach. The lagoon nearby had 6 flamingos so we were excited by that, our new record. As we had not realized that the lunch invitation was to include an outing we had not bought bathing suits. After paddling longingly in the clear warm water we could not resist so went swimming, as a lot of the locals do, fully clothed. When we were ready to leave we were taken back to their home where they harvested a pile of oranges for us to take with us. It was a lovely day and a fitting end to our last day in Ecuador which still remains my favorite country to travel. This family only solidified my faith in these warm, generous and gentle people.
We are now readying ourselves for the next part of our voyage—the approximately 21 day passage we have to get to the Marquesas. We have been listening to the Single side band radio and most vessels on their way are getting good winds so we are hoping they will sustain. They are the trade winds which should give us both a favorable wind and current for the 3000NM crossing. We hoped to leave tomorrow, we had planned on getting the boat ready today but our lunch invitation got us back at 5pm so we may not get going until Tuesday.
Aaron and Ashley will be there in 4 weeks so we need to leave—we are looking forward to sharing a small piece of our world with them and I know they are excited and looknog forward to coming.
The next blog entry will be in the Marquesas and probably a month from now so by then all of the snow in your part of the world and the leaves will be opening---until then. Hasta luego Spanish culture and bonjour to the French.