The weather followed pretty much the same pattern every day, being grey in the morning, and then clearing to a bright and sunny afternoon. The temperatures ranged from 32 degrees and hot in the day, down to about 20 degrees but windy at night.
SS and I slept really well – luckily neither of us are ever affected by seasickness. I spent some time looking through our porthole at some other ships docked nearby, including the Mary-Anne which is another Angermeyer ship, and the Cachalote. These two ships followed the same route as us, and so we 3 spent the week together (although all activities were held separately and staggered so that we did not run into each other). I was very happy with our choice of Sagitta – the Cachalote is a much lower spec vessel, and the Mary Anne, whilst more beautiful than the Sagitta, and a true sailing ship (unlike the Sagitta which it turns out was actually a barge that had some masts added for effect), had no outside space to speak of. The Sagitta was the best of all worlds, and had the happiest most helpful crew.
So, breakfast was served downstairs due to the weather. It was great – scrambled eggs, toast, cold meats, cheese, cereals and fresh fruit. I had taken numerous sachets of marmite from the BA lounge on the way over, so we usually had one of these on our toast each day.
So, very full, we waddled on to the main deck, put on our life jackets, and were taken into the dock and transferred up to the Charles Darwin Centre.
SS and I slept really well – luckily neither of us are ever affected by seasickness. I spent some time looking through our porthole at some other ships docked nearby, including the Mary-Anne which is another Angermeyer ship, and the Cachalote. These two ships followed the same route as us, and so we 3 spent the week together (although all activities were held separately and staggered so that we did not run into each other). I was very happy with our choice of Sagitta – the Cachalote is a much lower spec vessel, and the Mary Anne, whilst more beautiful than the Sagitta, and a true sailing ship (unlike the Sagitta which it turns out was actually a barge that had some masts added for effect), had no outside space to speak of. The Sagitta was the best of all worlds, and had the happiest most helpful crew.
So, breakfast was served downstairs due to the weather. It was great – scrambled eggs, toast, cold meats, cheese, cereals and fresh fruit. I had taken numerous sachets of marmite from the BA lounge on the way over, so we usually had one of these on our toast each day.
So, very full, we waddled on to the main deck, put on our life jackets, and were taken into the dock and transferred up to the Charles Darwin Centre.
We had to sit through a 6 minute out of date video and then a plea for money from the Darwin Centre people, and then Alex rescued us and shuttled us outside to where the giant tortoise breeding centre was. On the way, he gave a run down of the different types of tortoise (one per island – about 14 in total of which 2 are extinct, and only Lonesome George remains of the Pincha variety), and also of the introduced species that are causing havoc eg rats, cats, dogs, donkeys, insects. He went through how the goats were eradicated a couple of years ago (see the separate section on the Judas Goat…).
Then we were off to see the baby giant tortoises. The centre is focussing on giant tortoise population first. They collect the eggs from the tortoise nests, transport them upright (tortoise eggs cannot be rolled or inverted) and at the correct temperature (the sex of the tortoise is pre-determined by the depth at which it is buried in the nest – the deeper, the cooler, and therefore male. The closer to the surface, the warmer and therefore female. So the eggs are marked with their island, which side is up, and whether they are male or female. The eggs are incubated and hatched at the centre, and the babies kept for 4 years, at which time they are sufficiently mature to be re-released on to their respective islands. The programme has been very successful to date.
Then we were off to see the baby giant tortoises. The centre is focussing on giant tortoise population first. They collect the eggs from the tortoise nests, transport them upright (tortoise eggs cannot be rolled or inverted) and at the correct temperature (the sex of the tortoise is pre-determined by the depth at which it is buried in the nest – the deeper, the cooler, and therefore male. The closer to the surface, the warmer and therefore female. So the eggs are marked with their island, which side is up, and whether they are male or female. The eggs are incubated and hatched at the centre, and the babies kept for 4 years, at which time they are sufficiently mature to be re-released on to their respective islands. The programme has been very successful to date.
The babies were very cute in their pens, even if some of them did get into difficulty - we all cheered along this little one until he managed to right himself...
We then went to visit Lonesome George, who contrary to media reports is actually sterile and will never sire any babies. He has a very nice pen though, and some females for company. He also has a shell that looks WAY too small for him.
After this we had some free time to wander around, take pictures of land iguanas,
and also stumble across two tortoises having a fight – look at the mouth locked on the other’s leg through this fence!
We took photos of the same giant tortoises that everyone does,
and then went to the gift shoppe where I bought SS his own Darwin Centre T-shirt.
Back off to town along the red and yellow brick road (bricks are made from recycled glass from the islands),
Back off to town along the red and yellow brick road (bricks are made from recycled glass from the islands),
past the weird cactus trees
and we sat for a while by the docks watching people getting on with their day (working, unloading goods etc) while SS took his shirt off to get some sun.
I also bought some more less salubrious tshirts as gifts, including a sleep tshirt for SS that says, of course “I love boobies”.
We also stopped briefly at the fish market - very amusing to see the pelicans waiting for the scraps...
We had to stop at the supermarket to check out their chilli sauce collections, and bought 3 bottles of exotic looking sauces, then back on the panga and back to the boat for lunch.
Lunch was chicken marinated in garlic with fried rice and a lovely salad with fruit, radishes, lettuce and tiny sweet tomatoes. Followed by crepes stuffed with fruit and chocolate icecream.
We had some time to relax before again going back on the panga to the docks and transferring to a mini van to head up to the highlands to see tortoises “in the wild”. This is where the first indication of the military strictness of timing on the Sagitta came up. We had been told 2pm leaving, but started getting loads of knocking on the door at 1:55pm with exhortations to hurry up. Humph. 2pm means 2pm, or perhaps even 2:05pm in my book!
The wilderness of tortoises was actually a farm where the farmer now makes more money selling tickets to tourists to come and see the reintroduced giant tortoises trek around his land. Alex was a bit annoyed by the number of people there, and to be honest, tortoises really aren’t my thing. We did get to see a tortoise shell from a dead tortoise, and were shown how the bones of the tortoise are actually attached to the shell - quite interesting.
I was more amused by the gaggles of people staring at the lumbering, fat plodders. I did buy a carved tortoise as my take home knick knack tho’.
We went round the corner to see a lava tube as well, which was just like a big cave – not really my favourite thing as I get a bit claustrophobic. This was quite a huge tube however.
We got back a bit early to the docks, so had half an hour to kill before being picked up. SS and I wandered about town, observing the plight of the city – not very attractive.
Quick shower and change at the boat, and then back on the panga for a ride to the Angermeyer Point restaurant. To be honest, I would have preferred dinner on the boat, particularly when SS got into a “discussion” with the barman over the price of our beers (everything in Ecuador has a VAT of 12% plus service of 10% added to all quoted prices…). Food was ordinary (onion soup followed by meat and salad then a selection of cakes, one of which bore a great resemblance to the cake we had on board on the night before), and then on the way back our panga motor got tangled in the mooring line of the Mandalay yacht. Thank goodness someone on the boat saw it and called to our driver, otherwise things could have been messy! As it was we had to reverse back and forward 3 times to disentangle ourselves. Good fun in the dark...
We got back, had some mint tea, and prepared for the longest overnight cruise, down to Espanola.
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