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We had a good nights sleep last night ready for the last full day of the cruise. After another good breakfast we went for a walk along Sombrero Chino, we saw some tiny baby sealions (which we decided sounded like goats), iguanas swimming around and loads of small lava lizards and Sally Lightfoot Crabs in the rock pools. We felt very sorry for one poor sealion pup which looked malnourished and left on its own however they don't rescue animals on the Galápagos, just let nature take its course. Back at the shore a young fur seal was showing off in the water and gave us an acrobatics show. They look so much more comfortable and natural in water than on land. It was really hot by this point so we were looking forward to snorkelling again.
After some more fresh fruit we headed out on the dingy and snorkelled straight from the boat. The water was really cold but visibility was better. For the first part we saw the usual brightly coloured tropical fish and schools of black fish with blue fins, and then as we neared the coral there was a white tip shark (Galápagos shark) swimming a couple of meters away. We had been told by the others that it was hiding in the rocks which was more scary than when you could see it! Unfortunately Nathan's underwater camera has stopped working, Eddy has it filmed on her GoPro though.
After lunch we headed back to Santa Cruz and spent the afternoon on the north coast at Caleta Tortuga Negra. On the boat ride there Nathan spotted a couple of fins which could have been either whales or dolphins. We had a look at Eddy's GoPro videos which are really good, you can see the shark from earlier really clearly. We reckon Javier the barman has a crush on Browny as he knocked on her door and gave her his email address.
Instead of snorkelling in the afternoon we went on a panga ride (a trip in the dingy) around the mangroves. Eddin (the driver) turned off the engine and paddled us round which was really peaceful, you could just hear the birds and the water. We went in two groups which meant there were only 6 of us at a time too. We saw two turtles mating underwater which kept bobbing up to the top. There were blue footed boobies and a frigate bird nesting and pelicans and lava gulls flying around. We were on the look out for sharks but didn't see any unfortunately, what we thought was a fin was actually a spotted manta ray. Smaller turtles were swimming around one of which was really inquisitive and came right up to the boat. Ahead of us we just missed a massive crowd of blue footed boobies flying over.
The rest of the day was spent chilling and playing cards with a yummy spag bol for dinner. We had a cocktail each courtesy of Javier as a goodbye and thank you drink. 5.30am wake up tomorrow for the last activity of the cruise!
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