Hi Everyone. It’s been a little tough to get a good connection on land here so I am not able to download pictures at this time, I am sorry because we have some great pics of our adventures.
The Galapagos Islands are beautiful volcanic islands that began hundreds of thousands of years ago. It is governed by Ecuador. We have been anchored off Santa Cruz Island, the most populated of the islands. Darwin discovered his theory of evolution here and still has a Darwin Research Institute here. The culture here is friendly, although all Spanish speaking. While my Espanol has improved and even Mike has picked up some words, it gets mentally exhausting trying to communicate on a daily basis for your every need. You know how when you order Chinese food back in the States and they say “OK, 10 minute” after everything you say? Thats’ because that is all they know how to say. That is me now! I’ll manage a sentence or two in Spanish here and there and will get an ear full of Spanish back and all I can do is keep repeating the words I know back. I thought I was getting pretty good with my Spanish, since that is all we have been speaking since Florida so I booked Mike and I a taxi to take a tour to see the island the other day. Well when it came time to meet our taxi that afternoon….it was a boat. Before we knew it they were slapping life jackets on us and we were in the middle of the ocean in a water Taxi!!!! Mike was giving me the ’stink eye’ saying, “what have you gotten us into now”. Well we ended up boating to another small island. The currents here are very strong, as we are in the middle of the Pacific! Our tour of course was all in Spanish, so we only got bits and pieces of what they were saying so when they said to jump in, I thought the guy was crazy. We were the only thing around for miles, except for the wildlife. We ended up snorkeling with the sea lions, saw lot’s of fish etc. So much for playing tour guide! When the tour was over, we asked the tour guide to drop us off at our boat since we were going right by it…..He first wanted to show us something. He stopped the boat about 100 yards from where we are anchored and waited a few minutes. Before you knew it, 5 sharks were swimming around our tiny boat….Grande Sharks too. As amazing as that was, it was more amazing to know that we have been jumping off our boat to swim…so much for that!
Mike and Gary did do a great dive the other day a saw lot’s of Hammer Head Sharks. Galapagos is know for it’s incredible diving. The culture here is friendly and most things are cheap…except if you are on a boat they take advantage and charge astronomical fees for boat fuel and port fees. Gary signed himself up for a tour of another island and found himself in another small boat for 1.5 hours…he said his kidneys were killing him. Then he had to hike and take a horseback ride…but the island was beautiful.
Our friend Ben left the other day. He was going to make his way back to Ecuador and back on his track to Columbia and Argentina…..good luck Ben!
Well we begin the next leg of our journey tomorrow! We begin the largest passage of our journey, crossing the Pacific to Marqueses Islands (French Polynesia). This is a 3,200 mile course and will take us approximately 24 days (ish). We do have our large spinnaker sail and hope that will help us get there quicker as the Trade Winds should be with us most of the way, at our back. We keep in touch each day on the radio with other boats and are meeting lot’s of new people. We understand from others that have done this passage many times, it is the best! We expect much calmer seas and fair weather in this part of the world and this time of year. We will keep you up to date as often as the satellite will allow us. I will have lot’s of pictures to download when we get there. We love you all and think of you often! xxxooo