Galapagos

Galapagos is a lovely place to be. People are beautiful, happy and well fed. Whole families travel on one small motorbike. You can still ride in the back of utes, and driving is calm and slow, so it feels ok.
It used to be a wonderful cruising destination, but it's popularity has seen big changes, and access is now severely restricted no matter how you visit. The choice is to go on standard tourist trips, or you can hire a guide at $120 per day if you want to walk anywhere in the park. We are able to stay up to three weeks, but the boat has to stay in the one anchorage the whole time.
Coming ashore is always fun. There are usually seals blocking the jetty, sometimes six of them! Then there are the marine iguanas on the black volcanic shore, some bright red crabs and huge chitons.
We spent a day looking at the giant tortoises, first at the Darwin Institute where they breed for reintroduction to the wild. Some species are extinct, some almost, and others have been rescued from the brink.

Under a large sign explaining that one shouldn't feed the animals, fishermen are cleaning and selling their catch. They remain amazingly calm as pelicans and seals try to steal their fish! One image I loved.. the guy is whacking a seal with the flat of his knife to get it away from the tuna fillets, at the same time another seal is lying across his feet under the bench. And then, of course, they feed all the skin and other scraps to the seals and pelicans!
Since we can't walk in the parks and can't visit other islands with our own boat we'll probably leave in another day or two and head for the Marquesas, over 3000 miles away, three or four weeks at sea, but wind should be perfect for most of the passage.
Our jetty continues to reward… Steve headed off on his own today, so Marcel and I went to the restaurant for lunch, of course. We had two manta rays at the jetty. Later a Blue Footed Booby plummeted down to a fish a mere 2 metres from me! Great jetty.
Aforementioned lunch is a fantastic vegetable and cheese soup, with beans and stuff, very hearty, followed by a big plate of rice, chicken in sauce and salad, with a big glass of guava juice. $3
Lovely walk today to Tortuga Bay (Turtle Bay). Cactus forest, birds are not scared. Marine Iguanas, turtles (really!) Marcel swam in the dangerous rip through scary rocks and waves and saw lots of turtles in the water.

There is a photo of a giant tortoise poo...... and the special E'lida chili sauce, specially made for us.... tee hee. The bird coming towards me was... it hit me with beak and claw...

Note the group of Homo Cruise-Boatensis, gathered to admire the giant tortoise!!