Feb. 23 Santa Cruz
Had a local breakfast today, eggs, plantain ball and stewed tripe, I was a little nervous about the tripe, but it was cleaned properly so no ill effects were felt. Spent the morning walking around town checking out some of the areas I haven’t been to yet and talking with the other WARC’ers I met along the way.

A sea lion and some pelicans wait for scraps at the fish vendors table

Wiggo and I decided to try a beach on the other side of the anchorage for a change, you can’t walk there but the water taxis drop you off at a nearby dock. There are a few high end hotels here with landscaped grounds and patio restaurants. We walked along the pathways past them and at one point came upon a compost pile in which someone had thrown some aloe plants, having got a lot of sun yesterday I picked one of the greener leaves and began applying it to my forehead.

A frigate bird soars overhead

The beach was in a small lagoon, protected from the swells by a small reef at the outer edge. The water was cool enough to be refreshing and we swan amongst the many people there. We did some snorkeling and thewater cleared up as you got further out where it wasn’t being kicked up by the swimmers. I saw a lot of colorful fish, however my camera didn’t charge properly last night so I couldn’t get any photos.
We had a light lunch at the restaurant on the bay went back to the boat to change and hangout until happy hour. The WARC fleet meets for happy hour at The Rock, so we made our way down there to see the other crews, more boats are arriving everyday and the crowd is getting bigger each night. When everyone started to clear out we went back to the boat for some nightcaps while Richard played guitar until we all headed off to bed.

Wiggo at The Rock

Feb. 24 Highlands tour
I decided to make breakfast onboard this morning, ham and eggs with coffee and toast, we have been having some difficulty getting proper meat with our morning meal, tripe notwithstanding. It was going to be another lazy day, some of the guys were going back to Tortuga Bay, but I wanted to try the highlands tour the others had talked about.
I made arrangements with a taxi for a short tour, we drove up the countryside past some fruit and cattle farms; although the driver didn’t speak English any better than I speak Spanish we did manage to communicate enough to understand each other.
The tortoise breeding area is different than the one we saw on San Christobal; the tortoises’ roam freely on a large pasture with a lot of trees about, especially guava trees the fruit of which they eat. They go about their daily business doing things tortoises’ do, eating grass, cooling off in the mud and making baby tortoises. The males of the species get very large, while the females stay a lot smaller; some of the older ones were gigantic with shells over 5 feet long. The trails aren’t as well defined and you can goof them to take pictures which wasn’t allowed at the other one.

This gives some perspective of just how big they are



Even at 100 years old this guy is still a hit with the ladies

There are also lava tunnels on the property, a long narrow cave that gets smaller as you go into it. The walls are like a tube of hardened lava, and gravel could be seen in areas where it has broken away. There is some lighting inside but you have to walk down the steps carefully in order not to slip.

In the lava tunnels

After leaving we stopped at some collapsed craters on the way back to town; they are several hundred feet across and probably two hundred feet deep. There is one on each side of the road and it seems like they are one seismic event away from needed a bridge where the road would have been.

A collapsed cráter

On the way back to town my nose caught a wiff of something good, it smelled like chicken on a grill; once the driver dropped me off I walked back in that direction. I did find some chicken grilling, but thought since I was here I might as well see what else was available; I finally came upon a small place with just two tables, an old woman sleeping in a chair and a pot of something stewing on a gas burner, oh yeah jackpot! The stuff in the pot was chicken with pork skin and plantains, it was served with the local maize which had been almost popped and yucca; add a tall cold beer and it was a nice late lunch.
Just about the whole fleet is here now so happy hour was really busy, I picked up my laundry that I had dropped off in the morning and then went for a drink and to say hello to everyone. The rest of the crew showed up and after a couple we went down to “eat street” for dinner. Chicken was the choice of the day, both grilled and fried with rice and maize and of course more tall beers. Back at the boat it was some rum nightcaps onboard and then I went to sleep in the cockpit with the boat gently rocking in the slight swell.

Great day and photos. Love the sea lion just waiting for someone to look the other way!