Galapagos Trip 2023 -- Day 6 -- Floreana Island, Part 1--Onslow Islet

We had spent a busy day on Santa Cruz Island visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station, exploring Puerto Ayora, then heading to Rancho el Manzanillo in the highlands to see wild tortoises. 

We ate dinner while anchored in Academy Bay off of Puerto Ayora.  As usual we had our choice of seafood, meat or vegetarian.  I didn't usually take pictures of the meals, all of which were fantastic, but I was particularly impressed by the size of the shrimp in what was billed as shrimp scampi. 

Shrimp scampi

I fix shrimp scampi at home, but it doesn't look anything like this.  Every time I looked at these shrimp, I kept thinking of Paul Hogan in one of the 1980's commercials for Australia tourism saying in his Australian accent,  "I'll slip another shrimp on the barbie for you."

We weighed anchor about 10:30 pm and headed almost due south.  Our destination for today was Floreana Island, the southern most island in the archipelago.

Combined gps tracks for the entire trip.  Floreana Island is the southern most island.  The track for today is the aqua colored track,

Onslow Islet.  First up after breakfast was a panga exploration of the shoreline in and around Onslow Islet, a tiny island off the northern coast of Floreana Island.

Northern shore of Floreana Island with the aqua gps track of today's adventures, Onslow Islet, Post Office Bay, and Champion Islet.

It soon became obvious that we were winding our way through an obstacle course  of  lava outcroppings.  A variety of birds and animals were taking advantage of these various rocks jutting above the water to catch some early morning sun.  I think we were four pangas spaced closely together since this was a very small space.  We wove in, out, and around the lava outcroppings.

Blue-footed boobies and a camouflaged marine iguana on the lava rocks next to Onslow Islet

Despite this big influx of people, the various critters seemed not to be concerned and totally ignored us.

Sea lion and some blue-footed boobies

This sea lion has an itch

Yet another blue-footed booby

We saw multiple blue-footed boobies that were happy to pose for us. And to think that before we arrived in Galapagos I was afraid I would not see any at all.

Pelican

We made our way into a little cove formed by the shape of the islet.  Just like the smaller outcroppings we had been circling, the island was made up of blocks of lava,  I am not sure, but presume this is more pillow lava like we saw at North Seymour Island, hunks or pillows of rock formed when magma is extruded underwater.

Galapagos prickly pear sitting at the very edge of the island

On shore there were lots of Galapagos prickly pear cacti.  I am not sure what prickly pear  subspecies it is, but it is clearly one of the ones with higher branches.  From a distance they almost look like normal trees.  Their trunks (if that is the correct term) seem massive.  I don't know if it is unique to this subspecies, but one of the guides made the point that it is unusual to have cactus so close to water.

It was about this time when everyone started to notice several sizeable groups of penguins in the water.

Multiple penguins in the water just below the surface, one of several such groups that appeared here all at once.

Some of the penguins came right up to the pangas.

A penguin right next to us

I was genuinely surprised to see them, because I thought they all lived in the cooler waters to the west of Fernandina.  According to Wikipedia most of them do live there, but a small population is known to live on the north and west coast of Floreana, i.e. where we are today.

Moving along, we could see a sandy beach on the small peninsula of Floreana Island that juts out towards Onslow Islet.

Beach with some sea lions at the water's edge.  The dark areas in the water are more lava rock just below the surface.  The water is low enough that some are sticking out above the water on the left.  I am not sure, but I think the tide was out.  This beach may not exist at higher tides.

We were weaving around the outcroppings, but the aerial picture below shows we were only seeing a tiny fraction of  the rock.  The water is so clear the lava formations below the water are readily visible.

Aerial photo of location of morning panga ride near Onslow Islet showing lots and lots of lava rock below the water as well as above.  Onslow Islet is the dumbbell shaped island near the top.  The small peninsula at the lower right is part of Floreana Island.

Just offshore of the beach was a small cluster of mangroves.

Mangrove trees

As we got closer and circled around, we could see a few orange Sally Lightfoot Crabs in among the roots.  Although we couldn't get a good picture, a sea lion had crawled up into the branches (probably at high tide) and appeared sound asleep in his secure little hiding spot.

A Sally Lightfoot Crab at the base of the mangroves

There was even a lava heron down under the trees intently waiting for a fish to go by.

Lava heron under the mangroves.  Check out those mangrove roots!

Post Office Bay. We had seen a surprisingly wide range of interesting things on this adventure, but the day was young and we were just getting started.  Once past the mangroves, we proceeded further southwest along the coast and into world famous Post Office Bay.  There we did a wet landing onto the green sandy beach  That is the subject of the next post.

Galapagos Trip 2023 -- Day 5 -- Santa Cruz Highlands

CAUTION   --  I KIND OF GEEKED OUT -- THERE ARE STILL LOTS OF PICTURES TO SCAN IF YOU GET BORED WITH THE SCIENCE

We had had a busy morning on Santa Cruz island, first visiting the Charles Darwin Research Station, then exploring Puerto Ayora including the Fish Market.  We had a very enjoyable lunch at Finch Bay Hotel.

Now it was time for our next adventure, a visit to the Santa Cruz highlands.  Specifically we were going to Rancho el Manzanilla, a ranch in the highlands, to look for giant tortoises.

The Turkey stalking a tortoise at Rancho el Mazanillo in the Santa Cruz highlands

As seen in the photo above, the vegetation in the highlands is totally different from the mangroves along the coast or the cacti and palo santo trees of the slightly more interior arid regions.  The highlands had thick grass, shrubs, ponds, and trees! 

Vegetation zones vs altitude.  Like the other islands in the archipelago, Santa Cruz Island was formed from a volcano, however now extinct.  The highest point on the island is 2,835 feet.  The existence of the mountain leads to the climatic phenomenon known as the rain-shadow effect:

Prevailing winds blowing across the ocean contain some moisture. When they encounter an island with high elevations, like Isabela or Santa Cruz, they are forced to rise. At higher elevations, they become chilled and their water condenses as rain or mist, which precipitates out at high elevation on the windward side of the island. On the leeward side, there is very little moisture left in the air and the climate is, if anything, more arid than normal. Thus, the larger island have a distinct zonation of moisture that forms the basis for its ecological communities.

Habitat zones as a function of altitude on an island such as Santa Cruz (https://www.geol.umd.edu/sgc/GEOL388/lectures/07.html)

The difference in rainfall vs altitude leads to different vegetation zones at different elevations (see diagram above).  

I believe all of the shore visits so far have been in either littoral (coastal) zones or in arid zones (roughly up to an elevation of 300 feet (91 m) on the southern sides and as much as 1600 feet (488 m) on the drier northern sides).  Both of these zones have little rainfall. 

Above the arid zone is the transitional zone, which is characterized by increasing moisture and hence more lush vegetation.  The scalesia zone, roughly 650-1300 feet (198-396 m), is the lowest of the humid zones and is named after the scalesia tree which grows at these elevations in dense forests. .

Below is a map of Santa Cruz Island with elevation shown by the colors.  The elevations near the center are clearly high enough for significantly greener vegetation than anything we had seen so far.

Map of Santa Cruz Island. El Chato is the location of another tortoise ranch.  Rancho el Mazanillo is SSE of the point labeled La Casseta. (By Bamse - own work, using:File:Ecuador Galápagos Islands location map.svg by NordNordWest, GFDL, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=49195398)

The Highlands--Traditional Home of the Tortoises.  The highlands are the home of dome-shaped tortoises.  Giant tortoises have long lived in the highlands and on the southern slope where the climate is wetter and the vegetation is more abundant.  Of course, humans looking for an ideal location for farming and ranching  chose this same area for much the same reason. 

When the Galapagos National Park was created in 1959, 97% of the land surface of the archipelago was set aside as a protected area.  This includes most of Santa Cruz Island (see below).  The remaining 3% was land already owned and in use by the human settlers.  It was to remain zoned for human use.  That included much of the Santa Cruz highlands as shown in tan below. 

Boundary of Galapagos National Park on Santa Cruz Island.  I think Rancho el Manzanillo is on the edge of the Impact Reduction Zone at the west end of the straight east-west boundary near the center. (https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=89472#return81)

However, the tortoises either did not get the memo or chose to ignore it.  The tortoises continued to live and migrate through the areas assigned to the colonists.  It has taken awhile, but it appears the two groups have found a way to live together.  Rancho el Manzanillo is one of three ranches/reserves (and the newest, I think) where tourists can view wild tortoises in the Santa Cruz highlands on what is essentially ranch land.

Drive to the highlands.  Below is the gps track of our trip on a topo map.  It was about a 10 mile bus ride from Puerto Ayora to Rancho el Manzanillo.  Our bus followed the main road out of Puerto Ayora, It is mostly the ONLY road.  It eventually goes as far as the ferry to Baltra Island where the airport is located. 

Away from the water it was an immediate and steady uphill climb.  As soon as we got away from the first few block from the water, we were into the non-tourist area of town with houses, schools, a large soccer field, etc.  

As we got further from downtown the contrast between the very upscale homes in German town we had seen earlier and the homes here was stark.  Most of the homes were cinder block.  Many were unpainted.  Many of them had what looked like rebar sticking out of the top of the building, leaving an unfinished top floor.  Our guide commented on this, indicating they had been left partly unfinished until the occupants could save enough money to finish them  It is so common that this article refereed to the architecture style as "permanently unfinished".

At some point, probably after the left turn at Bellevista, it became ranch land with scattered homes.  There were multiple fields of grass enclosed by barbed wire with a few cattle.  There were also a few small stands of plants that I thought might be bananas.  In any case, the area obviously has more rainfall than lower elevations.  That is consistent with an elevation of 624 feet at Bellevista on my gps.

I don't know the speed limit, but we moved right along except for intermittent speed bumps.  I also noticed there was a bike/walking path parallel to the highway but somewhat separated.  Despite the long uphill grade, I saw multiple people on bikes with packages.  It looked like the bicycle was likely their normal means of transportation.

GPS track of our trip

Side road  to Rancho el Manzanillo.  A few miles further we came to the turn off to Rancho el Manzanillo  My gps had an elevation of 1213 feet at the turn off, which should have been the scalesia zone.  However there were no scalesia forests here.   Everything had been cleared for agriculture decades ago. 

The drive back to the ranch was a  downhill drop on an unpaved road.  By the time we reached the parking lot, my gps was back down to 600 feet elevation.  We stopped multiple times due to tortoises in the road.  There were barbed wire fences on either side of the drive in most places, but they were not to contain the tortoises.  The bottom strand was set high enough to let the tortoises pass under.  

This is not our picture, but I believe it is the same entrance road.  Note the tortoise crossing sign.  (https://www.metropolitan-touring.com/blog/nature/giant-tortoises-highlands-santa-cruz/)

Rancho el Manzanillo.  Despite the tortoises in the road, we made it. The first order of business was moving to the open pavilion where we got rubber boots.  It was very reminiscent of getting bowling shoes.  We each asked for a size and they pulled a pair off the shelf. 

I was very glad for the boots.  It was not terribly wet or muddy the day we were there, but our shoes would probably have gotten wet from all of the tall grass. What is not apparent in any of the pictures are the MANY rocks (dare I say boulders) often as big as bowling balls hiding in the long grass that made walking a challenge.

With boots on we were off.  Almost immediately we began to see tortoises. 

Tortoises were randomly scattered around.  This was immediately in front of the parking lot.

The tortoises were totally wild, but could care less about humans.

He just kept munching away on the grass despite the crowd watching him

Grass hanging out of the left side of his mouth

Tortoises are ectothermic (proper name for "cold-blooded"), unable to metabolically generate body heat.  However, adult tortoises can maintain a relatively stable body temperature by behavior alone, i.e. moving into sunlight to warm up, moving into the shade to cool down, or possibly submerging in mud or water.  Several of the tortoises were taking advantage of a small muddy pond.

One of the tortoises was on his way into the water.  Notice the duck standing near the edge.

Sometimes tortoises will sleep overnight in the water because it helps regulate their body temperature.

This guy had worked his way down into the mud

Most of the tortoises we saw were wandering around munching on grass.  I don't know which is more interesting, the tortoise munching on grass...

Not sure how easy it is to see, but the white streaks on his chin are stained green from the grass

...or all the people watching him.

Most of the tortoises were chilling out, but some seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere.  This one seemed to be on a mission.  These shots taken one after another make him look like he is really moving along.

 

 This video below is of him at normal speed, NOT slow-motion.

He may have been in a hurry, but hurry and fast are not the same thing.  Top speed for a Giant tortoise is about 0.2 mph.  However, even at that speed they can travel as much as 4 miles in a day.

Migrating to the Coast.  Although the tortoises spend a lot of time in the highlands, they do migrate between the highlands and the coast.  Importantly, the females lay their eggs on the coast.  Each female may lay several clutches.  Development is slow and eggs must incubate anywhere from four to eight months. Once hatched, the small tortoises live at lower altitudes, but eventually wander to the higher altitudes.  They reach sexual maturity at 20-25 years and are full size by age 40.  However, I could never find out at what age they typically return to the highlands.

Below is a map showing the gps tracks of some tortoises on Santa Cruz Island migrating between the  the highlands and the coast.  I think the easternmost set of tracks at the bottom likely include those at Rancho el Manzanillo.

Santa Cruz Island vegetation zones.  Black lines are gps tracks of migrating giant tortoises.  (https://phys.org/news/2012-11-galapagos-tortoises-migrating-species.html)

 

Why go to the coast?  As I was reading about all of this, I kept wondering why the tortoises bothered to migrate.  Why didn't they just stay in the highlands where it seemed living was good. I finally found this explanation in the book Galapagos: A Natural History, 2nd Edition, by John Kricher and Kevin Loughlin, page 137 (my underlining):

In recent years it has been learned that in many reptile species, sex is determined not chromosomally, as in birds and mammals, but essentially by the temperature at which the eggs are incubated while buried.  This appears to be the case with Galapagos tortoises. Research at the Charles Darwin Research Station has shown that embryos become males if the incubation temperature is less than 83 F (28.5 C).  Higher temperatures influence embryos to become female.  Recall that the tortoises bury their eggs in the lower and hotter zones found on the various islands.  Both males and females can be produced in a single nest because the actual egg temperature may vary somewhat based on the position of the egg in the clutch.  It is obvious as to why female domed tortoises must migrate to the arid lowlands for nest building. Were they to nest in the cool highlands, eggs would take much longer to incubate, many would perish from the cold temperature, and any that hatched would be males.

Interesting Flora.  Obviously our focus was primarily on the tortoises, but we still couldn't get over all of the lush green foliage so obvious in these shots.

 

 

Some of the trees looked like they had Spanish moss.

In one particularly wet area near a pond, the ferns were impressive.

Even though we were probably low enough in elevation that we were in the transition zone rather than the more humid scalesia zone, there was obviously a good amount of moisture here.  The plants were impressive.

If only the tortoises could tell their story.  Still, it was the tortoises I keep thinking about.

If only he could talk, I wonder what he would say.

Although mariners had been stopping at the islands for centuries, the earliest settlers came to Santa Cruz Island in the mid-1930's.  Presumably the highlands would not have been settled and cleared for agriculture until then or later, i.e. no more than about 90 years ago.  Giant tortoises can live 100-150 years or even longer.  Not only could the same families of tortoises have been coming back to this same location each year since before humans cleared the land, but the very tortoises we were interacting with, if they are older, may have been coming to this spot since then.  No wonder they acted like they own the place!

Iced tea, gift shop, and coffee farm??  We had really enjoyed wandering around looking at everything, but it was getting late.  We made our way back and handed in our boots.  Then we went to the beautiful open air restaurant and enjoyed some iced tea and downtime.

Paul tried out one of the hammocks

After someone mentioned how nice the gift shop was, we dashed over and found some t-shirts. 

It was only after I was home that I discovered online that the owner of Rancho el Manzanillo  (at least some time in the past) grew coffee on the property.  Coffee grown in Galpagos is supposed to be to die for.  However it is very hard to find.  After all, space for agriculture in the islands is very limited.  I did not see any such coffee for sale in the gift shop, but I wasn't looking for it.  If it was there, don't tell me.  I will never forgive myself for not getting some if it was available.

By the time we finished in the gift shop, the guide was pacing in front of the bus wondering where we were so we clamored aboard and the bus took off for Puerto Ayora.  We were soon back at the passenger dock.  While we waited at the dock for the pangas to take us back to the ship, the sun was setting, the temperature was coming down, and the entire area was coming alive with people. 

Of course there were also wildlife to watch.  There was a pelican who had a favorite spot on the dock railing.  He would watch intently, then dive into the water.  I don't know if he ever caught anything, but we sure enjoyed watching him.

Pelican watching for fish at the passenger dock in Puerto ayora

It had been an extremely busy day, but we had seen and learned so much.  We only had one more full day to go, but it was something I had been looking forward to seeing, Post Office Bay.

Galapagos Trip 2023 -- Day 5 -- Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island (part 2)

We had enjoyed exploring the Charles Darwin Research Station, but it was now time to move on.  

After the Frog grabbed a Coke at the Darwin Station concession stand (in an original green glass returnable bottle no less!) we started our trek back towards the passenger dock at about 10:45.  We were on our own at this point.  Our only instructions were to follow the road closest to the water, Avenida Charles Darwin, and we would eventually come to the dock where we had come ashore earlier in the morning. 

This area was obviously tourist oriented with many shops, but it was very nice.  I liked the fact that the shops seemed like small local establishments rather than large companies from outside.

Christmas Ornament.  Our first goal was to find a Christmas ornament to commemorate our trip.  I am sure there would have been many potential places, but we stopped at one of the first shops we saw after leaving the Research Station.  Sure enough, they had Christmas ornaments.  We found a goofy blue-footed booby, which seemed to fit what we needed. 

A Christmas tree ornament to remember the trip

Our next goal was to find the Fish Market.  We did not know where it was other than it was on Avenida Charles Darwin, the street we were on, so we just kept meandering. 

 

It was a great place to walk, with lots of interesting things to see.  Below is a nice little area at the corner of Avenida Charles Darwin Avenue on the right and Calle Floreana.  Under the tree is a monument to Lonesome George.  

The Tortoise Sculpture, Monument de la Tortuga is at the corner of Avenida Charles Darwin on the right and Calle Floreana to the left, just before we got to the Fish Market. It is a monument to Lonesome George.  (By Torbenbrinker - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=73817687)

Just beyond the Tortoise Sculpture, on the other side of the street, was a plaza with more seating.

View from in front of the Fish Market looking back towards the Tortoise Monument (in the background, across the street on the left).  The statue in the background to the right in the plaza is a tribute to Galapagos fishermen. The bay, not visible in this picture, is behind the scalloped concrete railing on the right.  Yes, that is a real sea lion in the foreground.  He was headed to the shade of the trees.

  Fish Market.  Immediately beyond the plaza was our target, the Fish Market!

L-shaped concrete counter in the center of the Fish Market

The Fish Market is very simple and actually quite small. It is primarily just an L-shaped concrete counter at the water's edge where staff clean the fish brought in by the fishermen.  Some cut up fish were already on the counter.

Cut-up fish on the counter at the Fish Market

I wasn't sure what kinds of fish they were, but I did see some pink mottled scorpionfish or what is called brujo in Spanish.  It is a common delicacy in restaurants in Santa Cruz, probably because it is only found in Galapagos.  I don't know if we had any on the ship, although I might not have remembered even if they told us because the name didn't mean anything to me at the time.  

We did have lots of tuna on the ship, which was very good.  A lot of tuna, probably yellow fin tuna, is caught in the area.  In fact, the coastal city of Manta, Ecuador, is considered by some to be the Tuna Capital of the World.  I thought some of the other fish on the counter might be tuna, but I did not know.

Spotted scorpion fish or brujo

BTW, the brujo that we saw here is not nearly as red as I have seen online elsewhere.  I think I read that the red color comes from eating shrimp, so maybe these fish had been eating something else.

The fish market is fairly simple, but a closer look reveals why this fish market is different from most.-- the multitude of animals.  

Two sea lions are lounging under the counter while  a pelican and a great blue heron are close by in the background

There were two sea lions under the counter, plus pelicans and a great blue heron were hanging out nearby, but no one shooed them away or even gave them much notice at all.

A great blue heron, pelicans, and marine iguanas at the fish market.

There were even some marine iguanas hanging out further down the pier.

A pelican and a marine iguana

Unfortunately they were not cutting up fish while we were there.  The many YouTube videos (for example this one from 2019) show how the animals interact with the humans working at the market.  To discard unwanted fish parts the workers don't throw them away, they throw them to the sea lions or pelicans..  The animals know the routine.  All the pelicans in the region swarm in.  The animals, including the sea lions, usually wait for scraps to be thrown their way.  Of course, sometimes they get impatient and help themselves to something off the counter, but noone seems to care.

More often than not, it appeared the humans had to step over the sea lions as they tried to clean up. 

Hosing down the floor of the Fish Market.  That is Avenida Charles Darwin in the background.

 

Stepping over and working around the sea lions

I couldn't help but think that a health inspector at home, even seeing only what we saw, would have a heart attack over such an arrangement

 Even though the Fish Market may have been uncharacteristically quiet, the location was beautiful.

View of the bay from the Fish Market.  Some of the pelicans got bored and are on the boat canopy dead ahead.  The La Pinta is the white ship on the horizon slightly to the right of center.  The large ship to the left of center is one of the National Geographic cruise ships.

Another view of the bay from the plaza next to the Fish Market

We continued on down Avenida Charles Darwin, finally making it to the passenger dock area.  We knew we were in the right place when we saw the big bird sculpture which we had seen earlier that morning.  We found a shady bench and enjoyed some time just relaxing.  I did not feel we had hurried, but we were the first to arrive other than two of the guides. 

Bird Statue in the park near the end of the passenger dock (http://www.oceansart.us/FreePhotosGalapagosIslandsPuertoAyora/PuertoAyoraGalapagosImages/23.html)

German Town.  Puerto Ayora was originally settled by Scandinavians and Germans in the 1930's.  Of particular note were the four Angermeyer brothers from Germany who traveled to Santa Cruz in 1935 to avoid the turmoil in Europe at that time  Their descendants still live on Santa Cruz and operate touring yachts and the Angermeyer Waterfront Inn in Puerto Ayora.  

The Angermeyers settled  on the south side of Academy Bay.   As pointed out by the guides, that part of Puerto Ayora is still referred to as German  town.  They also pointed out without further explanation that the original settlers had set it up so that the area was only accessible by boat.  That persists even to today.  

Our lunch was to be at the Finch Bay Hotel which is located in German town.  It is therefore only accessible by water. We loaded into the pangas and were off.

Casa la Iguana.  It was immediately obvious that German town is the upscale part of town. All of the properties visible from the water as we passed by looked quite impressive.  The guide pointed out one which he said was available for sale and quoted some high price that I have now forgotten.  I think it may have been the house refereed to as Casa la Iguana, which is a short term rental on Vrbo.  It looks mighty nice and sounds even better in the Vrbo description, but I am not sure I could swing the $2800 rent per night.

Casa la Iguana, one of the homes we passed on the east side of Academy Bay on our way to lunch (By David Adam Kess - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17830077)

Walk to the hotel.  Just beyond the dock for Casa la Iguana and the dock for the Angermeyer Hotel was our destination, the dock for Finch Bay Hotel.  Although the panga ride from the passenger dock was only 2 minutes, it turned out we still had quite a ways to go.  We followed a shaded path.   In most places there were walls separating the path from the properties on either side.  

After about ten minutes we came to a boardwalk next to a white sandy beach, Playa de los alemanes or, in English, German Beach.  About halfway down the beach we went through a wooden gate and were on the property of Finch Bay Hotel.

Finch Bay Hotel.   Finch Bay Hotel is owned and operated by Metropolitan Touring, the same company that owns La Pinta, I am sure part of our reason for being able to visit there while in town.  Given the owners, it is no surprise that the hotel and accompanying restaurant are extremely upscale.  However, coming from Texas where everything is air-conditioned to a temperature to rival our refrigerator, neither the lobby or the adjoining restaurant were air-conditioned.  There were large doors open on multiple sides allowing for a breeze from the outside.  It was comfortable, just different.  I was also surprised at how small the hotel is, 21 regular rooms and 6 suites.  However, that is probably not small considering the location.  

The buffet lunch was very nice, much like the meals we had been having on the ship.  Although the hotel website has pictures, this review on Tripadvisor has pictures of the restaurant and lobby more as I remember them.

The hotel is in a beautiful location.  The lobby and the restaurant look out over the pool.  The beach is just beyond.

Pool at the Finch Bay Hotel with the La Pinta in the background

Some of the others in our group took advantage of the hotel's pool.  Paul, Gwen, James, the Frog and I just chilled out and enjoyed some downtime together.

After this very nice leisurely lunch, it was time for our next adventure, a trip to the highlands to see giant tortoises. That is the topic of the next post.