The next morning the local Guardia came onboard to ask our purpose for the visit. Our agent was waiting on our hull cleaning certificate before processing our request for inspection. At 11am another party of 12 officials and our agent boarded Sunday Island to go through the formalities. They asked a lot of questions about the boat and were very concerned about our 2 stroke outboard, which we informed them we would not use during our stay in the islands.
The officials want to know you have a holding tank for your back waste, your garbage is segregated, you have signs placed around the vessel to remind the crew not to throw garbage overboard, you have a spill kit and your bilges are clean, your hull is clean, and that you have the correct safety and medical equipment onboard.
Once we were approved to remain on the island we caught a water taxi ashore – you cant use your own dinghy because the seals will destroy it! – and walked up to the Darwin tortoise park where they have a breeding program for three types of tortoise and a fantastic museum filled with facts and history about the island. We finished the day with a local meal before returning to the boat.
The following morning we packed our bags and set of on foot to visit Tortuga beach. It was a long walk in the hot sun, we were emtertined along the way by numerous lava lizards, and trying to name the fauna we had learnt from our tour the previous day. We enjoyed a swim in the surf of the pacific ocean when we got to the beach. We when walked along the beach noticing tracks of green turtles leading to their nesting sights of the previous night. We came across a large lagoon and were able to hire a couple of kayaks to explore the sanctuary where we saw huge green turtles, iguanas and frigates. Emilie even saw a baby hammer head shark, completely in proportion to a fully grown shark, but only 1ft long.
The next morning we organised a taxi to give us a tour around the island and set off towards “The Twins” – Two large sinkholes up in the mountains. We did a short 30minute walk around the sinkholes and surrounding parkland, and we were impressed with the amount of birdlife we saw. Next we headed up the mountain to a Tortoise reserve where we explored and got close and personal with some tortoises as old as 160 years old! In the same location we also had a guided tour of the lava tunnels.
The taxi driver then took us to his village and we had a menu del dia in the local bistro. The meal came to a total of $10 for the entire family! Then the driver drove us up a mountain Cerro Cowan 920m where we looked out through the mist at the distant coastline and clouds. We were all very impressed with the changes in fauna in such a minimal change in distance and altitude. The mountains are lush! Some of the plants that look like trees are actually huge dandelions, and others are cactus the size of gum trees! The taxi then took us back to sea level to a remote beach for a swim and some rock hopping to see the iguana’s and sea lions and pink flamingo’s before returning us to Purto Ayora.
The next morning we took pretty easy. Max and I took a walk to a beach and crawled our way along a rocky point hoping to find swimming iguanas having their morning meal. Max and I enjoyed seeing families of Iguana’s, finches, pelicans, and lava herons.
That afternoon we were sitting on deck playing when an iguana swam past the boat! Everybody was very excited and I filmed it swimming past while the kids climbed the forestay for a better look. I was so excited my iPhone flew over the side. Luckily I jumped in straight after it and caught it half way to the merky bottom. That evening we met up with Andrew and his family – friends from super yachting and Galapagos locals.
On Wednesday 7th February we set sail to the island of Isabella. We will return to Santa Cruz in three weeks time prior to our passage to Marqueses.
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