Day 43 – A turn for the worse

What a day its been today. It started with us going to pick up our guides girlfriend on the way to the highlands. They they were snuggled up on the front seats whilst we’re scratching our heads in the back. “Would’ve been nice to say something” we thought but we let it go.

Unfortunately, due to cloud cover, we didn’t get to stop off at the lake in the volcano so we headed straight for another tortoise sanctuary. This one differed from the rest in that its a reintroduction center; still we felt like we’d seen enough tortoises. When I say we I refer to Tom, myself and an Austrian guy called Mike.

As we’d missed the volcano out we got to the place where we were having lunch early. Billed as a farm that’s leading the way in the islands agricultural future it turned out to be a few buildings and a greenhouse. With not much to do before lunch I went for a wander to kill some time. In the grounds I saw some huge bamboo, pineapples growing and some huge palms. Near the buildings I bumped into one of the workers and joined him in picking oranges from the tree. He gave me one to eat; it was incredibly juicy and refreshing.

Lunch at the farm was good and made up for the slow morning. From there we headed to the beach. It was a little cove with some waves that were perfect for some body surfing. Our guide said to tell him when we were ready to go, we did but got told that he’d arranged a time for that car to pick us up. As it wasn’t too long a wait but when the time did come our guide started walking his girlfriend along the beach. Seeing him go into the see we had enough and made our way to the car. Nearly half an hour we waited; even the driver was looking perplexed.

As luck would have it the clouds had lifted so we made our way to the volcano. Along the way we stopped a couple of times for our guide to get beer out the back for him and his girlfriend to drink in the front. We arrived at the volcano pretty pissed off and the worst of it is that our guide owns the company, leaving us with no one to complain to. I can say this to anyone reading though – don’t book with gwww.galapagosoptions.com or www.galapago.tv The scenery at the volcano made some amends. The crater contained the islands only fresh water lake and its rim provided stunning views of the island.

Returning to town we went round in circles as our guide first stopped to sort out our ferry tickets then pick his laundry. Now the hotel was only round the corner so we could have gone there first. Guessing that he’d be dropping his girlfriend off before us we decided to get out and walk back.

Thankful to be away from our guide Tom and I wandered around. First we watch more sea lions and their pups before heading inland to a park. There we watch some locals playing basketball, football and practising salsa on a stage. One guy came over and, from what we could translate, told us most of his life story. Was nice to sit back and watch a bit of local life.

Tomorrow’s a new island and hopefully a better day.