CONDITIONS: Continued cooler, but high humidity. Mostly clear skies with clouds over the volcanic peaks. Zero winds while motoring to Santa Cruz Is.
PROPULSION: Motoring, at anchor here for two weeks.
MECHANICALS: Cleaned drain hose and anti-siphon valve from our head which had been emitting occasional odor.
CREW CONDITION: Excellent.
EXCITEMENT: Getting to shore to explore, enjoy some internet to contact friends and family, eat some food and take a San Cristobol Island tour.
COMMENTS: The minute we anchored, we were greeted by sea lions!
They wanted to spend the night on the swim platform. Despite all our efforts, a sea lion plopped up and made himself (herself?) at home. Its amazing how dirty they are! The sea lions are everywhere here as are many other species. Spent three nights and two days exploring the most SE island in the Galapagos and it's harbor town, Porto Bacherizo Moreno. The first day we dropped laundry off, walked all over town, and visited the Galapagos Interpretative Center. This is a fairly new facility about a :15min walk from town which outlines the geology and history of the Galapagos during a self-guided walking tour. It's amazing to realize that these islands have been frequented by Europeans since the early 1500's.
Non-endemic species introduced by humans over the years including pigs, goats, cats and dogs, plus the outright killing by man, have decimated many endemic species. There used to be around 300,000 turtles, and now there are only around 2-3,000, for instance
Jan and I shared a tour of the island's only road with a guide on 3/5. We visited a turtle rehabilitation center (again, fairly new - built in 1999) which was devoted to capturing and incubating turtle eggs and then growing the turtles to the age of about 7, after which they are being let loose on the uninhabited NE half of this large island. The turtle population is beginning to rebound. We were able to get very close to both male and female tortoises. We saw the hatching area, where they keep the turtles until release. They separate them according to age until they are a year old. So cute!! We were able to get a video of a male chasing (using the term lightly) a female. But he decided to give up--we decided he stopped for a beer.
On the Wed. 6th, we leave San Cristobal for Santa Cruz. It's only 45 miles, so looking forward to a nice sail.
There are many more tour boats in this harbor than we expected. And the town is busier and larger than expected. As in Panama, there seems to be lots of evidence of economic development and public improvement projects over the last 10 years or so. Certainly more so than we ever experienced in the Bahamas!!!
Non-endemic species introduced by humans over the years including pigs, goats, cats and dogs, plus the outright killing by man, have decimated many endemic species. There used to be around 300,000 turtles, and now there are only around 2-3,000, for instance
Jan and I shared a tour of the island's only road with a guide on 3/5. We visited a turtle rehabilitation center (again, fairly new - built in 1999) which was devoted to capturing and incubating turtle eggs and then growing the turtles to the age of about 7, after which they are being let loose on the uninhabited NE half of this large island. The turtle population is beginning to rebound. We were able to get very close to both male and female tortoises. We saw the hatching area, where they keep the turtles until release. They separate them according to age until they are a year old. So cute!! We were able to get a video of a male chasing (using the term lightly) a female. But he decided to give up--we decided he stopped for a beer.
On the Wed. 6th, we leave San Cristobal for Santa Cruz. It's only 45 miles, so looking forward to a nice sail.
There are many more tour boats in this harbor than we expected. And the town is busier and larger than expected. As in Panama, there seems to be lots of evidence of economic development and public improvement projects over the last 10 years or so. Certainly more so than we ever experienced in the Bahamas!!!
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