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Haven't had internet for a while so haven't been able to update, but here it is - a summary of the galapagos. On Santa Cruz before we got the boat to Isabella we lost our camera, or it was stolen. It's hard to know. Anyway, we realised with half an hour to go to get the boat so did a mad dash around town, didn't find it, went to the police and because of the language barrier they started playing sherades with us to try and understand what happened. We eventually just left.
The boat on the way over was a tiny speedboat with 11 people crammed into it. The waves were rough so it took 3 hours and the boat smacked down on waves so hard it hurt. The waves were actually higher than the boat. You could see sharks on the way which didn't help either :). When we arrived on Isabella we were met by Adolfo who owned the hostal we would be staying at for the next few weeks. He was such a lovely man, really jolly and took us to the hostal, (which had a fan!), to sleep for a few hours and to meet his wife, Petita. At dinner we met Phillipa and Liz, two english volunteers on the island. We went with them to the Sea Lion bar and met a few of the locals. A volcano, Azul, had started to erupt the following week so the clouds were all glowing orange - was amazing.
The next day we were brought down to the tortoise breeding centre and met the guys who ran it - Louis and Fernando. We later learned that everyone in Ecuador is called Fernando. Louis isn't fussed on giant tortoise, they are much too slow. His favourite animal is a sheep...really he showed us pictures. Most of the time at the tortoise centre Lisa looked after the baby tortoise, much like normal tortoise, and matthew the 'grande' ones because they are quite sexist. It was a novely, the little ones nibble at your shoelace and they all flail when tipped over, but it was hard enough work in the heat. We cleaned our their corals, gave them water, fed them - it was all a bit routine after a while.
We got out of work each day for lunch at 12.30 at the same restaurant. It was really nice food, probably the best soup we've ever had, and the meal was different every day. The lady who owned the restaurant always asked how everything was and made suggestions of stuff we may like. Matthew even ended up eating a bit of octopus soup. It's nice that all the restaurants and shops are basically people's living rooms.
After work each day we usually had a siesta or went to the beach. On the first day at work we went to the Island Tintoraras which translates to shark island to snorkle. This was great because we got to swim with penguins and sea lions and saw blue footed boobies on the way over. If you walk down by the port you can see dozens of sea lion spread out on the deck or on boats, they sound exactly like a dog barking.
At the weekend we hired bikes and cycled to the wall of tears, built by convicts during the second world war because the officers were afraid they would escape to Santa Cruz..likely. It's made out of volcanic rocks and has some lovely view points on the way. We had to cycle there in heavy rain which made it quite difficult but there was one lookout where you could see over most of the island. We also went to the volcano sierra niegro at the weekend with Adolfo. It is the 2nd largest volcanic crater in the world at 11km circumference. It's made up of 2 more volanoes the took a 25km walk to it, around and back to the truck. Matthew and Adolfo were wrecked, Lisa was told she was a 'good walker'.
We decided to try and explain to the police on Isabella what had happened to the camera in the hope it would have been handed in. This didn't really work out. We were introduced to the 'policeman' who was wearing civillian clothes and smelled of booze. Matthew started to explain what had happened with sherades but it seemed the man didn't want to play. Instead he got us to write a report on the computer, with the screensaver a half-naked woman, and of course it took ages to load up. He was generally quite creepy and at one point asked to see Lisa's phone. Not about to say no to a policeman we handed it over and he went through half the videos and pictures in the time it took for us to write the report. We couldn't wait to be out of there. The police in Ecuador in general are funny, 2/3 of them ride the one scooter thing at a time. It's rather cute but we don't see it working back home.
Most nights we went to the Sea Lion bar which was on the peir. That or bar de beto. We got to know quite a few of the locals, several of them incredibly creepy, and random tourists and volunteers on the island. The next volunteers to come were Anna-Rosa from Austria and Alex from England. We would go to the sea lion and then when it closed, the group of us plus the owner lobo with the crazy eyebrows and the bar guys would head to beto. One of the best nights was when this local Joseph had a few friends over from the other islands. One of them was hilarious and would laugh at everything, you then couldn't help but laugh. At one point Joseph was trying to say he was unique and instead called himself a eunuch. His friend helped us make fun of him all night - he doesn't understand most jokes.
On our last fews days on Isabella we went to the tortoise sanctuary on another part of the island and scraped numbers off and renumbered tortoise. We were basically destroying their shells so we felt a bit bad. On our last day we decided not to go to work.. then later bumped into both Fernando and Louis. We went for a bike ride in the morning on cheapy rental bikes and Matthew broke the chain of his. We then had to wheel the thing back and we removed the chain completely to be more conspicuous so as not to have to pay for the repair. It wasn't our fault, it randomly broke. Amazingly the woman who owned the bike didn't notice as we wheeled it in right in front of her. We rented some snorkelling equipment and went down to the concha de perla to try and see something. Not much luck, apart from this old man who was swimming lengths in the sea, we were impressed. On the last few nights we went to the sea lion then to beto, and then were convinced to go to the only club on the island..Millenium. Was worse than Thompsons, ten times worse.
We really enjoyed our time on Isabella. It was so relaxed and everyone was more friendly than at home. It would be rude not to say hello if passing someone on the sandy streets.We got to know lots of the locals who are incredibly different than mainland Ecuadorians. We could have easily stayed there much longer. Everyday we got fresh fruit juice and got to talk to someone new. The beach was a minutes walk away and the bars on it. The guys at the tortoise centre were funny, we taught Louis the name of his house in english but he kept saying 'a meeting with an indian' instead of indiginous person which wasn't very pc.
We got a tiny plane back to Baltra for the flight back to Quito, just couldn't stick that boat again. The aircraft was a 9 seater and probably just as terrifying.. but for a shorter length of time. At the 'airport' no one showed up until 15 minutes before the flight and Adolfo ended up pulling Matthew into a hug.
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