San Cristobal, Galapagos
We watched off the bow as the Galapagos Islands slowly drew nearer. It’s quite a site to see after being at sea for a few days.
Birds became more and more abundant and rays breached to the sides of the boat. Periodically we’d see manta rays surface feeding, with just their wing tips exposed above the water.
Rather than dolphins bow riding as usual, sea lions came out to greet us, and at one point the entire waters surface off to starboard rippled and splashed due to a huge school of fish moving close to the surface.
We all watched closely at the amazing life around us – some of us in crazier positions than others…
The scenery was breathtaking.
Clouds rolled over the land sending dramatic rain showers our way.
We watched in awe as we passed by Kicker Rock, which are the remains of a volcano.
It is so tall, a solid stack about 2 miles from San Cristobal. Notice the two dinghies at its base for size reference.
The anchorage in Wreck Bay is warm and inviting. Many boats lay at anchor, the majority of them Oyster Monohulls all congregated for an Oyster Rally.
We dropped anchor in 40ft of water down onto a sandy bottom, and watched the sun set behind us.
We tied fenders to the sugar scoops so sea lions didn’t climb up onto Tanda Malaika, washed up and lay around lazily enjoying our new place of adventure. Right before bed, Jude and Mycah squealed in fear as a huge hummingbird moth flew into the main salon, circled around then left again.
Sea Lions were already trying to board our neighbors catamaran.
In the morning, we dove down and checked our hull one more time, knowing that it would be inspected soon, and scraped off a few barnacles we’d either missed or who attached themselves during the last 200 nm of passage. The water is slightly cooler than before and so refreshing.
About 8 adults soon arrived and got to work on paperwork and inspecting. We passed the hull inspection with flying colors, all paperwork was in order, and the gentleman that checking inside found a weasel in a stored bag of rice, and set up an appointment for the boat to be fumigated in the morning at 10am.
Once they were gone we caught the water taxi into town and got to meet several of the locals lounging around.
Some poor soul left their dinghy tied up and now has some tenants to evict.
The town is quaint and colorful. We walked around in search of ice cream and lunch – not in any particular order.
Small fruit and clothing markets are all over town and many of the streets are made of laid bricks.
Several cacti stood tall and proud,
some of them blooming in beautiful shades of yellow.
It’s a lazy quiet town, and many stores were closed. We wondered if it is some sort of holiday.
We eventually returned to the docks and watched bright red and orange crabs below,
sea lions played in the beautiful clear water, some with young pups and others by themselves.
Tomorrow we will go exploring and find the giant Galapagos tortoise. Every day an adventure with more exquisite natural wonders to study and see.
Adventures of a Tribe 