[Jules]

Wednesday 10/10/07

We went for a long walk on San Christobel in search of Giant Tortoises in the wild. I don’t know what I was expecting in terms of size. They were big though, and quite sleepy.

One went for a little walk whilst a few of us watched it.


The terrain was interesting and we heard and Saw mocking birds too.


There’s a problem here in that Goats and other mammal introduced by man put pressure on the environment and thus may affect the long term survival of the tortoises. Many people will know that when the Galapagos islands were first discovered there were loads of tortoises and they were plundered by just about everyone as a good source of meat for long voyages. Basically the ships filled their holds with them and they stayed edible for many months with no water or food.



After the long walk we went to civilisation… the main town in San Christobel where we purchased t- shirts and drank beer in bar (obviously just to do our bit for the local economy)

After retiring to Deep blue for dinner and watching the guides videos we returned to land by Rib to visit a local bar . And had the most bizarre game of pool ever. I should say at this point that firstly I am rubbish at Pool and secondly it makes it difficult when people are manhandling parts of your body.
Gary nabbed the best seat in the place


and the rest of us had a few polite beers.



Pic shows Kev, Jamesy and Ricardo (Rick to his mates)

We only went out for a couple but somehow that turned in many and some of us were a bit the worse for wear when we eventually returned to the boat.



Pic shows Lou, Kathy, Luis the dive guide, Kev, Jason, James, Rick