Tuesday 28 February – a last good walk for a few weeks

We were up early to get to the fruit and veg market by 6:30am, this turned out to be rather a mistake, the market really doesn’t get going until about 9am! We still managed to do a large shop, endless vegetables and fruit. Rowan went and did the meat purchasing which was a very local butcher in the market, the meat did look good. The chicken man arrived as we were leaving, frozen chickens from the farm. Finally Rowan found a large stalk on green bananas, all the boats have them hanging in the cockpit. We caught a taxi back to the water taxi dock as we had so much stuff, the fun began on board, washing down the bananas to get the critters off and then fitting most of the produce into the fridges and deep freeze. It was like a complicated game of Jenga, but we got there in the end.

Megan was on a dive, Rowan and I caught a water taxi to Tortuga Bay and Han went shopping and cruising town. We arrived at this gorgeous white beach which has trees growing along the edges that have had their branches conveniently propped up so that people can sit in the shade. The beach has a couple of officials parading up and down making sure you don’t leave anything on the ground except for your towels so that the iguanas can nest, they provide wooden posts with hooks for hanging up things, because you are not allowed to hang anything on the trees as I discovered when my reading was rudely interrupted by a sharp blast of a whistle! It is very good they are so strict, there is no litter anywhere. The creatures seem so relaxed as they are so protected and not threatened. I’m not sure if I mentioned but a few days ago we had a local with us on the water taxi returning to PolePole and he spotted our plank of nails (sea lion defender) and he said it was illegal, and we should take it down. He said that in the Galapagos animals have more rights than humans! It was rather heartening to hear.

It was very hot but lovely under trees and we spent a few hours reading before heading back. We didn’t see the baby hammerheads but saw loads of iguanas coming in and out the water. We walked back to town. A lovely walk along a stunning long beach but with difficult swimming conditions. Then a hot steamy walk back through the bush to town, little bits of shade from the scrubby bush and a few trees. The path is paved with lava stone the whole way otherwise it would be impossible to walk, as the route is straight through a lava flow.

Leaving on the fast water taxi to Tortuga bay

The lava cactus landscape

Our shady spot

Just in from a swim

Joining us in the shade

Exhausted after their swim, expelling all the salt through their nostrils

Such beautiful white sand

Very tame Peli

The paved walk back, a couple of kms

We headed back to PolePole passing everyone on their boats preparing for the big departure tomorrow. Hannah got us a booking at the oldest restaurant in town, the Isla Grill, Rowan remembers it from 30 years ago, can’t say I do especially as we couldn’t afford to eat there on our backpacker’s budget. We had a lovely meal there with our new crew, looking over the anchorage. The crew from the big Oyster Isabel were there too.

Our last dinner out for a while

This Great Blue Heron never flinched on the restaurant pontoon, where we got our water taxi home. I think he was enjoying fishing with the aid of a spotlight!