Galapagos - Finally here

After a few hours rest, we awoke to a glorious sunny day. Before we had time to have breakfast, our agent Bolivar was at the boat, and indicated that he'd be back in two hours with customs and immigration to check us in!

We spent a bit of time straightening up the boat for our guests, but soon enough Bolivar came back and picked us up and took us into town. We went to his house, where we filled out paperwork for our cruising permit, customs and immigration, and the port captain came to the house to check us in. We went with Bolivar's wife to the brand new immigration offices and surrendered our passports for inspection. We also arranged with Bolivar delivery of fuel and water to the boat for Monday. It was all very pleasant and seamless. Of course, it does cost a small fortune ($700 USD), but you are not allowed to check in here without an agent, so we had little choice in the matter.

The small town here surprised us. It is quaint and colourful, and is full of charm. It does have an overwhelming odor of guano, but I expect that will be the norm in this Archipelago, and we'll be used to it soon enough. As we walked back to the water taxi dock, we noticed all the sea lions playing near the shore, and around the boats. There is a sea lion park for them, complete with waterslides!! They are often basking on the benches that line the waterfront, and tourists gather to take photos sitting on a bench beside a sea lion. I expect we'll do the same (hard to pass up a kodak moment like that), but this morning it was fun to watch and laugh at it all.

We took a siesta this afternoon, and took advantage of the calm conditions in the anchorage to change the oil and fuel filters, and get Renova ready for her third crew member.

This evening we met up with Dom, and enjoyed a fabulous celebratory dinner in town. John ate this enourmous meat fiesta platter, while I enjoyed the fish specialty and lobster for Dom. We're living it up now!!