In the port town, the kids were throwing water, flour and paint in water balloons, at each other and also any unfortunate victim that came into range.  We finally figured out that this was their Mardi Gras celebration and

This morning we visited the Charles Darwin Center which is on the outskirts of Puerta Ayora, Santa Cruz.  They had an interpretation center plus several pens containing adult giant tortoises.  They also operate the breeding program to regenerate the tortoise population.  We watched a video in the interpretation center which described in glowing terms, how the various warring factions of government, fishermen, and environmentalists got together in 1999 to work out a plan to make everyone happy regarding setting aside areas for parkland - no fishing etc.  The voice over talked about the group hugs at the end of the meeting and said how well the plan is working.  This did not entirely jibe with the street demonstrations we witnessed in Cristobal when we arrived - but more on this later.

 

 

In the afternoon, we took a tour to a "ranch" within the national park to see "wild" tortoises on the hoof, plus do a little bird watching.  We saw a half dozen or so large tortoises in a two hour hike of the ranch. It was indeed more interesting to see them in their natural habitat.  The terrain was fairly wild with dense growth but a very high number of fruit trees - passion fruit, guavas, oranges, etc plus shallow ponds.  The tortoises were grazing greedily on the fallen fruit and I wondered if we were walking through what was once extensive orchards but is now so heavily overgrown, is hardly recognizable as such.  The tortoises migrate annually across the island and would certainly have figured out a good campsite over a hundred years or so.

 

We next toured a lava tube.  There are several on the island but this one goes back more than 1200 feet.  It was like being inside a

tunnel at the London underground.  The curves were gradual and the ceiling was quite high.  These tubes would contain molten lava which at the end of the eruption, would continue to flow out of the tube it had melted, leaving the hollow form behind.  When we began the tour there was no lighting and we had three small flashlights between 5 people.  The inside of the tube is black lava, so there is little reflected light and the 3 LED headlamp, I had brought with us from the boat, did not do a particularly good job at illuminating our passage.  At the turn around point, the electric lighting magically came on, which eliminated the challenge but also changed the experience.

I asked our guide about the fisherman's dispute, since we had been warned not to go to Isla Isabella for about ten days and that is our next destination.  He assured me that it is now perfectly safe.  The fishermen are happy and they got everything they wanted.  He said the last time they demonstrated, they blockaded all of the tourist anchorages.  They kidnapped the giant turtles from the Darwin Center's display, they burned the Park Headquarters on Isabella, and shot a park ranger.

Oh.

March 3, 2004

Slow day today.  We did boat maintenance stuff, replaced the flag halyard, checked rigging etc. while we watched boobies doing kamikaze dives into the harbor.  They are amazing to watch.  They begin their dive at quite high altitude, much higher than pelicans or cormorants.  They fold their wings in and become a vertical arrow.  They will dive right next to the boat - you think you are going to be hit and they have to be traveling much faster than mere gravity will allow.  Tomorrow we are scuba diving in the bay and then the day after, we might go out to the Santa Fe Island we passed on the way in, for more diving.  Possibly sail out of here on Friday for Isabella.

 

March 4, 2004

 

March 5, 2004

The first task of the day was to get a "Zarpe."  Basically it is a document giving you permission to leave and depending on where you are, it is a statement that you have paid all of your bills.  This latter requirement does not apply here and we had heard from several cruisers that the Port Captain in Santa Cruz was a problem.  Sure enough he pulled the same stunt on us that we had been warned about.  Wanted our "Autoridad" that takes weeks to get from Ecuador.  He maintained that we had come here illegally without this document.  His position was that by arriving without a visa as we did, we could stay 20 days but just at the island we had arrived at.  I adopted the broken record approach and repeated that the port captain in San Cristobal KNEW we had no visa, told us we could visit three islands, told us to visit Isabella - "muy bonita."  Santa Cruz captain said it is illegal, I repeated my statement.  This went on for a while until a gentleman arrived whose English was flawless.  We did the same thing.  I said just give me a Zarpe for Marquesas.  I indicated to the translator that I expected to have engine problems on the first day out (just as I was passing Isabella).  He said he would too.  Once I said I wasn't going to Isabella, all problems disappeared.  Suddenly Isabella was OK.  It just cost us $6.50 for the domestic Zarpe.  We heard other boats were asked for $100 for the Isabella Zarpe.  Only took 90 minutes.  Then we needed lunch and beer.

I hit the Internet cafe to check to see if the world was still out there - it is.  I downloaded some weather fax software and then we toured the grocery store for beer.  The beer costs 60 cents per bottle here with a 40 cent deposit on the bottle - total $1 / bottle.  They were concerned that we knew we would get our 40 cents back when we returned the bottles.  Since beer is allegedly $5 / bottle in French Polynesia, I don't think we will worry too much about the deposits.  Tomorrow morning we leave for Isabella.

 

March 6, 2004

South 57.9 degrees 4.8 minutes, West 90 degrees 57.8 minutes

We are currently anchored at Villamil, Isla Isabella.  S 00 deg 57.9' W 090 deg 57.8'

We recovered the anchors in Santa Cruz and set out on an overcast and almost windless day.  A couple of hours after we left, Annette caught a 26 inch Dorado (Mahi Mahi) on a trolling line.  As far as she was concerned, if the boat had sunk at that moment, she would

 still have had a great day.  The Dorado steaks are in the fridge and we have dinner guests tonight to help us dispose of them.  Annette tried jiggling her second trolling line by hand and about 10 minutes later, was rewarded by a second and larger Dorado, ripping the entire rig off and leaving her holding a small length of monofilament.  When we first began buying "installment one" of the fishing gear, she did not want anything large.  Now she wants steel cables and harpoon guns.  Nothing is too big!  The wind finally came up and we sailed the last hour or so to Villamil.

As we approached the island, Annette saw the wing tips of a huge Manta (?) Ray in the water.  The tips were easily 8 foot across.  I think this would be a small one.  A little later we spotted our first shark.  He was swimming along the surface and his two fins were about a dingy length apart.  We have scoured the shark identification pictures and decided upon a possible hammerhead.

 

The harbor was tricky to get in to and we recognized the two yachts already there, from previous anchorages.  The most EXCITING thing was that although the harbor contains sea lions (old hat) and all sorts of fish (seen 'em before), there are PENGUINS!!!  They are about 18 inches or so and zoom through the water.  They flip up to the surface and swim around and under the boat.  Annette wants one.  So does Attila.

 

March 7, 2004

Today was a busy day.  Our Swiss friends Pierre Phillipe and Kathleen from "OLLA" came over last night to help us eat our Dorado.  This morning we picked them up in our dinghy for a trip to visit several volcanoes.  This was a 10 hour trip of which two hours was by truck, four hours by horseback and two hours hiking over some incredibly beautiful and tortured terrain.  We drove up to a ranch and

then trans-shipped to small unshod mountain ponies.  Well I am assuming the latter, I saw "The Man from Snowy River."  The horses seemed to know pretty much what was expected of them, which was fortunate.  Annette named her's "Nibbles," due to it's tendency to graze continuously as it was walking up the trail.  It was less comfortable following it, since it kept hitting it's horsey brakes and then farting.  I named my horse "Purina" as a sort of gentle warning.

We traversed the rim of the immense caldera of Sierra Negra, (second largest in the world).  The nearby volcano of Cerro Azul last erupted in 1998.  The caldera was filled with what had obviously been an immense lava lake.  We "parked" horses and continued our journey to the volcano "Chico" on foot.  The terrain was covered in ash, pumice, basalt, and lava flows.  Some of these dated from the previous eruption over a century ago and some of the flows were obviously quite recent.  We crossed lava tubes, fumaroles issuing steam and up to the several craters of Chico.  The colors were almost beyond belief with the yellows of sulfur and the reds of iron, through almost every color in the spectrum.  From the summit of "Chico" we looked out over a black lava plain, with a few bright green islands of vegetation, that had avoided being toasted by the last eruption and beyond that, Elizabeth Bay and the Pacific.

 

We hiked downhill away from "Chico" and then back uphill on cinders towards the tethered horses.  I asked Annette if she wouldn't prefer to hike back to the truck.  She said she was going to kiss her horse when she found him again.

We remounted like Hollywood extras and headed back along the rim of Sierra Negra.  The view was breathtaking until the skies opened.  We haven't seen more than a couple of drops of rain since we left Houston.  We about drowned on horseback.  I kept thinking of the scene from "The Unforgiven" where Clint Eastwood just about expires.  I know how he felt.  The trail turned from damp to a river.  The horses were slipping, stumbling, and sliding all over the place.  I wasn't too concerned until SOMEONE had to mention not finishing up like Superman.  (Christopher Reeves, for you uncool people, was paralyzed after a dreadful riding accident).  I was very happy to see horse central again and switch to our freezing open air truck ride.

We had a soggy "lunch" at a resort that was on the way back to Villamil.  The barbecue was out of doors and the rain kept putting the coals out.

A really fun day and one that I would possibly like to repeat sans horses.

 

March 8, 2004

We did chores today.  Changed generator oil, Racor diesel filter, water maker filters etc.  All messy jobs!  Then we went into Villamil touristing.  Ecuador used to have a prison here and they made the prisoners build a wall to keep them out of mischief.  The wall is "El Muro de las Lagrimas" and is supposed to be 10 meters high and 120 meters long.  We had been told that it was a 10 minutes walk from Villamil.  After ten minutes of walking along a beautiful little track along the edge of the beach, we came to a break in the mangroves opposite the beach and found a shallow lake filled with pink flamingos.  We took the required photographs and continued our

hike.  A little later, we came across the cemetery.  Interesting - all overgrown with creepers.  A strange mixture of styles.  Some graves looked like Hollywood's "boot hill" - some looked more like the above ground vaults you see in Louisiana.  They dated back to the 1930's.  We continued our walk.  Finally we came to a sign "El Muro de las Lagrimas" and an arrow indicating 5 kilometers.  We were out of water, so we turned around and headed back to a bar in Villamil for a couple of beers.  Next time - find a cab.

We entertained the crew of Farne on board DoodleBug and then we all left in their dinghy for the restaurant at the dinghy landing.  About 10 o'clock we piled back into Farne's dinghy but the tide had gone way down.  (Saw a big Eagle Ray under Farne's dinghy at the dock).  We threaded our way back to our yachts by flashlight and had to keep lifting the engine to get over rocks and using the paddles.  It took about 30 minutes to do what had taken about 5 minutes at high tide.  We saw small flying fish lying on the surface of the water.  They would "hop" when startled by the flashlight and Annette decided they were sea frogs.

 

March 9, 2004

S/V "Farne" left this morning for the Marquesas.

Today was a slow day.  We did some more boat chores in the morning and then hung around in the afternoon reading books (I am reading "Ahab's Wife") since our local boat supplier had promised to deliver diesel to the boat by 3 o'clock in the afternoon.  At around 4:15 he still hadn't shown, so we headed for the dock and hired a truck to take us out to "El Muro de las Lagrimas" (Wall of Tears).  We had been told it was about 10 minutes walk north of town.  It took 20 or so minutes by truck.  About a 3 hour walk each way.

The wall was impressive.  Deserted and eerie, it blocked the gap between two small pinnacles.  The prison was established in 1945 and held some 50 prisoners at a time.  The slabs where two large huts had been remain.  There was a huge pit where the prisoners dug for rocks and then the brooding wall.  Mortality rate was high and there was no wire to keep the prisoners in, since there was no where to go on the island and no fresh surface water available.

We then headed back to town to buy two coconuts for Annette (took 30 minutes - coconut trees everywhere but no coconuts for sale!),

then back to the dock.  The diesel guy was loading his boat as we got there and took off as we watched him.  We headed after him in the dinghy, to protect him from Attila but when we reached the boat, the diesel was aboard but he was gone.

Wednesday morning, we talked to "Farne" by SSB radio.  They had no wind at night and motored.  When we spoke to them, they had 5 knots of wind.  By this time we had 10 knots where we  were anchored, so maybe it was headed towards them.

We hit the Capitania for an exit "Zarpe."  No problems, 4 bucks.  We couldn't get an exit stamp for our passports because the local police station doesn't have a stamp.  They just kept repeating, "No problema."  Well, not for them, certainly.

This evening Pierre and Catherine from "OLLA" helped us celebrate Annette's birthday with champagne and rum cake from the Cayman Islands.  Pierre and Catherine gave Annette a present of a CD of singer / poet Jaques Brel.  He (along with the painter Gaugin) are buried on the Marquesas.