Friday 15 March - Santa Cruz & Bowditch Bay

Santa  Cruz. We disembarked at 07.00: landed at Cerro Dragon for an adventurous walk. This turned out to be very very muddy and our shoes became heavy and completely clogged with the sticky mud  and almost came off. Fortunately we had sticks and these enabled us  to traverse the difficult ground. This was "expedition" cruising and indeed was the only expedition trip ashore that we were to get in the Galapagos

There were only seven of us in the group led by Paul, who helped Chris quite a bit over the rocks after landing . Having emerged from the mud onto a circular path we then saw several  large yellowy land iguanas who seemed mainly to use the paths to get themselves round the island. At one stage we came across two males who were gearing up for a fight over territory,  we watched them sparring for quite some time , but we did not have time to await the outcome .

We had our own zodiac back to the ship with Paul and the doctor as we were considerably behind the other five.

We went for a lecture  on feathers  at 11 which was not very interesting. Then lunch and some packing. At  2:30 pm Paulina told us all what was going to happen on our departure  day

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Later we  went ashore at a delightful white coral beach called Bowditch Bay, We walked all the way along this and then Chris had a float with a flotation jacket on.

Back of board by 4.30. Chris did a little more packing and we tried to dry off the wet shoes and various other items that we had to wash after the morning walk .

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At 7 o’clock we went down to see the voyage video which, as usual, was not over impressive. 

The crew's farewell was painful as Americans were whistling at them. A very pleasant last dinner, and then we sat outside by the unlit fire and had a brandy. David got chatting to a Canadian whilst Chris went up to the room to finish packing

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On to Saturday 16th March - San Christobal and Home

Galapagos 2024 holiday