Once again, I have uploaded 4 blog posts at once so be careful not to miss Porter's blogs about the frigate birds (las fragatas) and the Giant Galapagos Tortoises, and the Rabbit's comprehensive blog about our amazing tour on Isla Isabela.
We are very lucky to have a fifth crew member for the upcoming two passages. Pete James, an RMS XXV alumnus from Bolton, Massachusetts just joined us in the Galapagos. He will be with us for the next six weeks as we are bound for Easter Island and then Puerto Montt, Chile.
Getting Pete was a bit of an adventure. First, I took a
water taxi from Sila to shore ($0.60). Then a cab to the bus terminal ($1.00).
From there, I took a bus across the island ($2.00) to a ferry terminal where I
took another water taxi ($1.00) across a small inlet to Isla Baltra. There I
waited in a long line to take the free bus up to the airport. Nearly two hours
after I started, I found myself waiting at the Isla Baltra Airport for Pete's
arrival. We then reversed the order….
On the first bus, Pete does not look like a guy who had left
Boston and flown overnight to Ecuador.
The little ferry could carry up to sixty people in the seats
below with luggage stacked on the roof
We didn’t wait long to put Pete to work as he was assigned
to solve the great banana problem
Where do we hang all of the green bananas we have for the
passage?
Most of Pete's second day was spent doing passage prep jobs
including provisioning the boat, putting the self steering back on the stern,
checking various systems, rigging the preventers and generally preparing the
boat to be offshore for what could be a month. In the afternoon, we visited the
Charles Darwin Center where we saw Giant Tortoises, Marine Iguanas, Land Iguanas,
countless finches, and some playful mockingbirds. Because it was relatively hot
when we returned to Sila, we all enjoyed a swim and spent some time scrubbing
the algae that has accumulated on the bottom of the boat while we have been
anchored in the Galapagos. Later in the evening, though, we had our second
visitor to the poop deck.
(note the additional bananas hanging under the arch. Pete solved the problem!) This sea lion beared his teeth and growled at us as we tried
to take pictures of him. But then once we swung a towel in his direction and
told him to get off the boat, he turned and dove back into the water. Sea lion
on the poop deck- just another day on Sila. – Molly
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: your comments are public, should be family friendly, and of course concise... and it is often weeks or months until we actaully see and read comments (so we typically do not respond to questions in comments, email us instead)