Tortoga Beach

We walked out to this beautiful beach on Xmas day .A 5 mile walk in baking sun and heat........but definitely worth it!
The sea was turquoise and the surfers having fun.
Marine eguanas were crawling undisturbed along the beach.

Las Gietas

Christmas evening!

Christmas evening Galapagos Islands.

Happy Christmas and Happy New year

We are spending the Festive season  on Isla Santa Cruz, one of the Galapagos Islands.
We arrived a week ago. We are anchored in the bay at Puerto Ayora, the main town on the island. It is a very busy place which is buzzing with boats all the time.  Small cruise- ships come and go. Taxi- pangas and dinghies come and go. A freighter is offloading goods into pangas and barges and transporting to a small dock with a small mechanically worked crane. This is cumbersome and takes time..

The restaurants on the waterfront are all busy.

This is totally different from Isla Cristobal which seemed sleepy but nice.
We have been on a taxi tour to see the giant tortoises and also a lava tunnel and craters.
Yesterday we walked to the Charles Darvin Center in the town and saw the small tortoises which are kept  in enclosures till they are 5-7 years and big enough to live in their natural habitat on the islands.  We also saw a yellow land eguana.

It's all quite amazing.

It's Christmas and yesterday we saw a large nativity play taking place in the local park . All the local school children took part. It was wonderful. They were all so excited to do this. Our agent, Irene,  is a teacher a d she alerted us to this happening.
We have just bought water as out new watermaker works with the generator with 110v.  We have a problem with the generator as it runs wild to 75Hertz and has to be turned off.
Water here is $1 a gallon! We bought 80 gallons.

Happy Christmas and New year.

Isla Santa Cruz

Hans Christian  left us on Tuesday 16. December after a lovely time here. He had been off exploring Isla Santa Cruz and Isla Isabella on his own for five days  before he flew home to Denmark. He came back bright eyed and bushy tailed and talked about a Salsa- bar!.....the dance not the food!

We cleared out from Isla Cristobal and left at daybreak, 6.00 on 18. Dec.
We had a good sail on a reach and 10- 15 knots of wind and picked up a yellow buoy in the bay at Puerto Ayora,  Isla Santa Cruz at 14.00 after 42 Miles. The Capitania (harbour captain) did not understand our trying to ask for permission to enter, didn't reply, so we just went in.
A very rolly poly  day and night was spent before we let go of the mooring and anchored in the lee next to a couple of other yachts with bow and stern anchors. Lovely and calm till loud latino music  blared  out from the nearby restaurant and lasted till the small hours of the morning!
Compared  to Isla Cristobal this is a busy place with taxi- pangas, cruise boats, ferries, cargo transport in to the very busy tourist town of Puerto Ayora,  the main town on Isla Santa Cruz. When I say this, it is very low key as there is no proper harbour warf.  Cargo ships have to anker and  small pangas transport goods to shore  where again men are handling the goods. This is all to protect the invironment/ecosystem of these unique islands. I imagine this is partly why it is so pricy to travel here.
This town is very touristy and all the shops sell souvenirs in the high street.  The fish market is an experience of its own as sea lions, pelicans and frigate birds are queuing for fish with the other costumers.
Today we had a taxi ride inland to see craters,  lava tunnels and giant turtles. All very fascinating.

photos from Isla Cristobal, Galapagos Islands

There is always a lot to see and experience. This morning we went along the shore to see some blue footed  boobies.

Agua taxies at the dock in Isla Cristobal. 

Brown pelican posing on the rocks. 

Black matine- iguana on the rocks and Sally-  lightfoot crabs.

View over the bay.

Sally -llightfoot crabs on the rocks.

Young girls on the pier.

Blue  footed boobie. 

Blue feet!

Photos from Here.

Photos

S/v Aros Mear at the anchorage in Isla Cristobal.

Sea lion sunbathing.

My brother Hans Christian enjoying The Galapagos with us. 

Blue footed boobie!

Isla Cristobal, GALAPAGOS ISLANDS.

We arrived after 4 1/2 days great sail from mainland Ecuador Wednesday 3rd December.
Our agent greeted us and the next couple of hours we were busy being visited by a long string of officials. All was well and the diver gave us thumbs up for a clean hull.
Our real welcome was given by the tremendous amount of sea lions on shore and in the azur blue clean sea.
We were on the Galapagos Islands.  Now time to explore!

Puerto Moreno,  Isla Cristobal.

Sea lion pup.looking for mum.