Day 62 Darwin Bay and the Interpretation Center
We thought we’d switch up today and tried a different restaurant for breakfast, however after eating we did end up back at Patagonia for coffee and wifi. A couple of the crew planned on doing the tour the island tour the rest of us did the other day, while Dan, Richard, Wiggo and I decided we would go to Darwin Bay for snorkeling in the afternoon when the tide would be in.
The walk from town isn’t too bad, it’s about 20 minutes to the Interpretation Center and then another 15-20 to get to the bay itself. The university is nearby and the site is popular with the student there. You have to sign in at the center and then you proceed through the buildings that have some displays and informative kiosk.
The trail to the bay is paved with the cut stone used at many of the other sites and there are benches along the way if you want to relax a little. The vegetation is varied and many of the trees, cactus and shrubs are identified. The bay itself is small and there are some steps leading into the water off a small dock that some of the students use for sunbathing.
There were a lot of fish in the bay amongst the large rocks that littered the bottom; it is protected from the sea so the water was calm with very little current. A group of sea lions reside on the rocks there and they were active while we were swimming; it is a bit startling when they come at you swiftly from out of nowhere. We had hoped to get some photos of them but they were just too quick.





Some of the colorful fish in the bay


A heron stands on a rock by the sea


After we had enough snorkeling we walked up to a couple of the lookout points, one with a huge statue of Charles Darwin from which you could get a nice panorama of the area. We then headed back to town for some refreshments and a snack before returning to Skyelark for dinner of tenderloin steaks with wedges and some wine from my friends winery in California. We plan to set off for a long motor to Santa Cruz at 2:00 am so everyone made it an early night without too much revelry.

The bay from the lookout above


A view of the town from the Interpretation Center

Very much enjoying your tour. Thanks for continuing to share.

Sammy,
I am enjoying all your great reports and thanks for taking the time to do these. I think Skyelark is vicariously taking a lot of TTOL folks along on this adventure.

Fred

Thanks guys, glad you're enjoying it. Had a great snorkel on Isabell Island photos and report to follow. Fred I'm thinking of doing the Thisland charter next January with 4-5 days in Bangkok before them hire a car for 4-5 days after and explore the area stopping for the night in small villages, trying to find someone who wants to do all or part of it cause it would be more fun than being on my own all that time