The start of itinerary 2 - giant tortoises, a cactus forest, new guests and crew

From the itinerary:

Santa Cruz Island: Fausto Llerena Breeding Center / Highlands

Today's sunrise

Today we started the second itinerary (out of our total 3) - these days were the best of our journey because of the people we sailed with and because of the beautiful snorkeling. 16 guests left us and 12 new people joined us, for a total of 16 - a much more manageable number for a boat this size. There are now 6 Americans, 7 Brits, a South African, a Mexican, and a Belgian. We found swans in our cabin

We closed ranks with Patricia from Pennsylvania and Michelle from Belgium and we ate all our meals together.

Santa Cruz Island is the most populated island having about 30,000 inhabitants. Here are some snaps of the center area which included an old church, interesting manhole covers, the pretty central square and an ad hoc fish market which drew and audience of lots of pelicans

Our first stop was to see the turtle breeding center.

It had a lovely approach - through a shaded lane of button trees, named after their seeds that look like buttons

This was mildly interesting - they breed the land turtles in captivity to the point of determining how many males/females will hatch (determined by the temperature in the incubator). We enjoyed seeing the large saddle back turtles

and I did enjoy seeing the cactus forest with prickly pear and organ pipe cacti growing more than 20 feet high. The trunks loose their spiny needles and look like wood. Some were even blooming.

The best part of Lonesome George was having to wait in the air conditioned anti-room. It was very hot and humid.

Shopping was the next activity. Along the way we saw a swimming iguana come up to talk with the crabs.

We didn't want to buy anything so ended up in a bar having beer (Chris), a fruit smoothy (Patricia) and a passion fruit milk shake (Anne).

We were off then to the highlands and the El Chato 2 Ranch and conservation area.

We met the new travelers which included:

Georgie and Nick and their 4 children aged about 4-15 from England, Hannah (Colorado) and Evan (South Africa)- lovers whose cabin got screwed up and she made a big scene, 3 sisters (Kathy, Coleen and forgot the name of number 3) from Washington State, Colorado, and S Carolina, and a Marcella from Mexico.

We have a new guide- Adrian- and a new ships crew, with the exception of the captain, first mate, cook and his helper, and Jose (guide)

There were some pretty amazing tortoises at the reserve

and we also were able to walk through a lava tube.

Another hour for shopping (which we spent back at the same bar) and back to the boat. While waiting for the zodiacs we saw some local wildlife at the pier.

The afternoon was some lovely snorkeling. Patricia also saw a hammerhead shark!

This next part was really unorganised. Unfortunately Jose's English isn't the best and the briefing was really confusing. He got through it and we got to the welcome cocktail party to meet the crew- Adrian was master of ceremonies and he didn't know any of their names. Tonight's Cocktails was a daiquiri .

Finally we got to eat dinner which was fresh fish and quite good.

Another beautiful sunset

I am exhausted.