Today started with diving. At the shop at 7:15, and in the water at 9:00 for a brief checkout dive amongst the three of us. Choppy and decent currents, but apparently that's normal this time of year. The first spot was Seymour (pronounced "see-more") and as the name may suggest, you would expect great visibility and fantastic aquatic life there. Alas, my friends, strike out on both. Visibility changes daily here, with all four main currents in the pacific ocean ...

Landed in Baltra this morning, all on schedule. First official action was to confiscate my passport (for those who know my Greyhound story in Boston 25 years ago, this doesn't really bother me). I needed to pay a $100 entry fee, cash only, and no ATMs. I only had $90 because I bought some elderly Aussies water and didn't realize I was pushing the wallet below $100. Anyways, I got here just fine, and now I don't have to worry about loosing my passport, so all's w...

And 60m after an early landing I'm on my bed for the night. It's really a little ranch near the airport with a couple of rooms B&B style, and it works for what I need, given that I leave at 6:30 again. This is a new international airport, opened in March, well outside of the city. Hotels weren't confident enough to invest until it was actually open, which is great, because local B&B's are so much more fun then a Sheraton. On the plane I started talking ...