We had a nasty sandy wet landing then headed along the trail to the far end of the beach. Most trails in the Galapagos follow a circular route, and our guide specialises in taking us the wrong way around – we constantly see arrows pointing in the opposite direction. This probably made SS very happy as it would appeal to his rebellious nature. We had our usual welcoming party of a sea lion splayed out on the sand.
The terrain was different again - sandy and rocky along the waterfront, with steeper cliffs than we have been used to.
Once we reached the rocks – there were the fur seals. They are different to sea lions in that they have pointier noses – more like dogs, and much shorter front flippers. They are also darker, and have much more of a ruff around their necks – it is very clear why they fall into the sea lion family.
Fur seals do get on with sea lions tho’ – since they can’t interbreed they aren’t competition for each other, so co-exist well.
There were loads of baby fur seals, which look like little teddy bears - very very sweet.
They are a lot more active than sea lions too – they are nocturnal hunters (using their whiskers) and were just coming back to lie in the sun all day, so were quite active and had a few scuffles with each other which we hadn’t seen with sea lions. Some ended up in very uncomfortable looking spaces indeed.
SS sat on a rock and soon attracted a few friends.
There were also marine iguanas, sea lions, finches, pelicans and so on.
Back to the boat, and breakfast was ready straight away. Today was sausages wrapped in bacon, plus the usual. I skipped the granola – too much food!
Snorkelling was at 9:30am off the rocks near the fur seals. The water was very cold again, but we were having a great time plopping around with fish and turtles. I was swimming above one turtle quite happily when it decided to surface unexpectedly, and its shell whacked me on the temple before I could move. It didn’t bat a turtle eyelid, just flippered off lazily.
As we were rounding the point back towards the beach, the shout came up from the panga about 15ometres out to see “RAY – MANTA RAY!!”. We all turned round and started flippering, doggy paddling and trying inelegantly to get there as quickly as possible. I was completely out of breath, but it was worth it – the ray was stunning. 10 ft across, black on top and glowing white underneath, it lazily was fanning its way along. The panga kept it corralled as much as possible, but there was no way we could keep up with it. I got a couple of photos, but they don’t capture how amazing this animal was.
At one point it stuck its tail and stinger out of the water about 6ft away from me, and I had a moment of clarity about “What on earth am I doing 300m from shore, chasing after a manta ray???” Images of Steve Irwin were popping up. Luckily the ray beat an exit at that point, and Donna and I turned for shore. I kept my eyes shut as I snorkelled back – I am not sure how I ended up in the ocean where I couldn’t see the bottom. Once the reef reappeared, Donna and I were both exhausted. The panga picked up a couple of the other snorkelers, but I looked at Donna and said “Boat or swim to the beach”. She said “I’ll swim if you do”. I thought of all the mountains of food I had consumed and said “Swim!”. So we did, and were rewarded with a couple more turtles, a stingray and some more fish on the way in, not to mention a marine iguana swimming along the beach as well.
Back to the boat for a shower, then lunch was called – we were really not hungry!
Lunch was steak in mushroom sauce, mashed potato, pasta salad, green salad and beetroot salad. I had the steak, but SS stuck to the pasta salad. It was lovely. Fruit to finish.
The boat headed off again – this time to Bartolome so we could take the famous photos of the view that everyone takes when they visit Galapagos.
We then had a chat about tipping with the remaining people at the table (Donna, Phil, Kathy, Dorothy and Mike). The Angermeyer brochure suggested $100 per person for the crew and $50 per person for the guide. Seemed a bit much to all of us for the guide, but none of us felt we could really buck the trend. We would all have given more to the crew – they really were great.
SS went off tanning again, and I headed inside to the shade and my book again. There was another snorkelling at 2:30pm off Bartolome, which I decided to skip. Whilst the beach looked lovely, the snorkellers confirmed on their return that it was freezing, and they didn't see that much.
I took some photos of all the other joiners leaving, and then I just relaxed on the boat and read my book whilst SS tanned.
On their return, there was juice all round, then a very quick change, and we were on the panga and off to the landing point.
Manmade landing steps for a change, but as usual they were occupied – a large sea-lion had to be shoo-ed out of the way before we headed off up the path. There were a number of spots where scenes for Master and Commander were shot along this route, see if you can pick them (Some clues – the spot where Maturin released all the animals from cages; the spot where Maturin saw the “phantom” French ship).
SS was thrilled to get some exercise. We were told to make our way to the top in our own time, and he strode off, determined to give Alex a run for his money.
Otherwise, it was very windy,
and like a moonscape in appearance on the way up.
We had another group photo – this time I took a picture of Alex laden down with all our cameras – he had this routine down well!
And of course, we all took the photos of pinnacle rock that are a tourist's must have! The Mary Anne obliged by mooring in view, so that we got a couple of photos with her in shot - very reminiscent of what it must have been like with just the Beagle in these waters.
It was nice to get some exercise, and 365 steps up was certainly enough to raise the heartbeat.
More dough balls on return to the ship, with juice again., then we went down to the cabin to rest. Captains cocktails again at 7pm, and SS and I bought a bottle of wine as well – we hardly drank on the cruise really, so our bar bill was much lower than expected.
The crew had created pretty patterns of ships and fruit decorations as well as a large cake downstairs – not sure how they maintain their enthusiasm doing the same thing week in week out, but there you go.
Dinner was lobster, chicken, vegetables, followed by cake.
We were quite tiddly after a bottle of wine and wine with the captains cocktails, plus top ups with dinner. After dinner we went up to settle the bar bill, then Tim showed us some of his photos downstairs on the television which was fun. Another early start loomed, so off to bed.
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