January 11th

Log Entry by Pamela Maynard

The Galapagos has white sand beaches! It is beautiful! I spent the morning wandering down and around Tortuga (Turtle) Bay, a 40 min walk from downtown Puerto Ayora. As I wandered from town I took photos of beautiful houses and plants and enjoyed the wildlife. The trail down to the water was lined by cactus, sandalwood trees and others which I can´t identify. Lava lizards abounded and birds chirped, displaying their beautiful selves. I was never quite quick enough to get the photos I wanted but got enough to say I was there. Every so often a cool breeze would waft past, teasing me and renewing hope that I would get out of the lava rock oven soon enough and get to play in the surf. Eventually I came upon a wonderful cresent shaped white sand beach with sand as fine as flour. I walked along the edge of the water to a protected cove where the swimming was safer and the  beach just as beautiful. I swam for a little while before it was time to go. A marine iguana was sunning himself on a rock and I watched him for a while. They are mating at this time of year and he was nodding his head as his kind do at this time. After swimming, I walked back to town and had a very messy but good club sandwich for lunch before getting ready to go snorkling. I got to swim with sea lions, play in a grieta (a fissure in the earth filled with brackish water) and to observe white fin sharks in the wild. It was amazing. It was intimidating to swim with so much water beneath me and the sea lions so close!  I also got to have a sneak preview of a BBC/National Geographic documentary series on the Galapagos Islands. The fellows who have made it have been filming for a year and a half already and want to get footage of us on the Thompson! Who knows, I may end up on TV! There is always hope anyway. They´ll be filming us gathering samples and I can just hope that I´ll be on watch then and get on film. I don´t expect it to come out anytime soon, but I´ll let you know if things change. Tomorrow, the boat!!