Saturday 16th June

Puerto Ayora
Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands.

0 44.914 S
90 18.417 W

Happy birthday Carol, very best wishes for a great year ahead.

It was overcast when we woke today; it seems like almost every day here begins that way and then brightens up by mid morning. The good thing is that the rain seems to stay away, at least where we are, I’m not so sure about higher up in the hills.
Gerry thought it was time for a cooked breakfast again and did a great job of cooking it. We caught the water taxi into town and were surprised to find that it was very quiet, I had expected Saturday morning to be busy with lots of people everywhere. Gerry wanted to go and buy the batteries to replace the one that has died on us and I wanted to go to the market to buy some vegetables, as both places were in the same direction we set together. I left Gerry at the turn off for the battery store and continued on to the market, it didn’t seem to be as full as when I visited it the other day. I found almost everything I wanted plus a few bonus things – basil and coriander amongst them. Having loaded up my bags I was about to begin the return journey when Gerry suddenly appeared at my side without the batteries. The store had been closed and as far as he could make out it would be open at 09.00hrs tomorrow, though we both find this hard to believe. I was glad he had turned up as it meant I didn’t have to carry all the shopping. On the way back down into town we spotted a store selling engine oil in 5 gallon buckets – it was the oil we use and had been hard to find in a couple of places. I was worried that Gerry was going to buy a bucket but they also sold 1 gallon containers when we asked; we bought 2 of them and then it was a toss up as to who would carry what, I ended up carrying the oil as it was lighter than the shopping. We made our way to the internet café and loaded the last couple of day’s blog notes and some photos and then decided to have an early lunch. By the time we got the food it wasn’t early any more but the pizza, fresh orange juice, coffee and ice cream was worth the wait. Once we had eaten we returned to the boat and stowed the purchases. A short siesta followed then we spent the rest of the afternoon in the cockpit watching the comings and goings on the water including the antics of a couple of sea lions that decided to frolic in the water near our boat. Neither of us was particularly hungry so we just had soup for dinner and then watched a movie before going to bed.