Up early for a flight to the Galapagos.  First we flew to the city of Guayaquil, looking down through the gaps in the clouds, we could see vast areas of low lying farm land and houses under water. The airport had some rather large colonies of Egrets nesting between the runways. A short stop, and then we were off to the island of Baltra, a very small island separated from Santa Cruz by a channel of 200 meters. The airport was fairly efficient, quickly relieving us of 100 dollars each for entry.

Left the airport on a bus, then onto the foot ferry to Santa Cruz. Our private coach on the other side took us for our tour. The weather was fascinating, the main land was cloudy, the trip to the islands was clear blue. The islands of course were covered with cloud. Our coach trip took us up to a place where we were due to have a walk and see our first finches, but not to be, a deluge of rain. The walk was cancelled and instead to we went to a private reserve where we saw a barn owl and some romping tortoises feeding. A few birds were spotted, and then back onto the bus to the town of Puerto Ayora for lunch, and a walk to the Tortoise Breeding Centre.  Turned out Rosemary was not the only one in our party with a birthday today, 21st March.

Now the weather was much improved, sunny and hot, but where we had come from, the cloud still persisted, and rain was surely still falling. A practical lesson in geography.

In the town we met begging Sea Lions surrounding the man gutting and filleting Yellow Fin Tuna. At the breeding centre we saw some juvenile tortoises which had not yet been released, and also the old man of them all, Lonesome George.

This first island was somewhat more touristy and inhabited than we’d expected

Back to the town, and we boarded our cruise liner for the week; a twin masted boat called “Cachalote” (Sperm Whale). Supper was soon ready, after which we went to bed pretty early afterwards.