Semilla Verde Guest House Puerto Ayora

... of the water around 50metres away, I looked around to see Santa Fe as the boat turned into a bay. <br><br>The bay was already occupied by three other boats and snorkelers already in the water. Our boat purred into the bay carefully and towards the far end of the bay where the shoreline meets a sandy beach. As we neared the beach we slowed down to a stop and looked down to see several very large sharks swimming about 2 or so metres beneath us. They were big sharks ...

... who had been in his class yesterday, and played soccer with him for a while. At the beach they played in the waves. After about an hour the clouds moved in and it turned cold.<br><br>We headed home. We finished off some of the left overs in the fridge and I returned to journal writing.<br><br>Today was probably the least active day we had had for a long time, and boy did we need it.

... We have also been talking with our landlady about the possibility of staying here longer, she has been talking to the principal of the local school and has arranged for Jody and Naimh to attend classes tomorrow, we are hoping they will pick up Spanish better if they attend classes with other kids. We are not sure how long we want to stay, it is in the balance. We still have plenty of countries to visit and just over 100 days left. We finished off the day with a homemade spaghetti dish.

... our boat ride yesterday. The Posieden had 3 levels, the lower deck with about 5 cabins, the middle deck had a bar and the kitchen and a covered upper deck which was where we were to have breakfast and, later, lunch.<br><br>Breakfast was with us about 30minutes into the trip, the normal offering of scrambled eggs, bread, coffee and jam. Following this we all took a snooze whilst the boat chugged across.<br><br>Around 9-30am we arrived to what was a truly amazing landscape ...

... whilst trying to control my own bike on what was a bumpy dirt track. It wasn&#8217;t ideal by any means. It was quite an arduous descent and made worse by the fact that it wasn&#8217;t a 5minute ride it was more like 20minutes. At about 15 minutes down the road had a left hand turn and there were no signposts. We chose to go straight on and shortly thereafter arrived at El Chato. The left hand turn apparently takes you to the lava tunnel. <br><br>El Chato had a restaurant ...

... 3 per person per hour but we were able to negotiate $15 for the four bikes until 6pm. We went on bikes to Charles Darwin centre, which was a couple of kilometres along the harbor front. Charles Darwin Centre is owned by a Belgium association, but they are dedicated to the research of wildlife and fauna in Galapagos. The most significant item of interest to us were the huge tortoises, and I mean huge. Apparently these gentle giants can ...

... had recently competed in and won a double iron man triathlon competition in Switzerland. A double iron man! It took him 25 hours.<br><br>We returned to port and said goodbye to our new friends, they were going back to Quito. We promised to call them when we got back to Quito.<br><br> We went to the cheap eating hole we had been last night, the children had a burger and a hot dog, Christie and I shared a cheese, ham and salad roll. We went home and watched a movie.

We got up late, 6am and it was 6-25am before we left the apartment. We hailed a taxi, which cost $3 and we arrived at the airport at 6-45am, the flight was due to leave at 7-10am and we hadn't even bought tickets yet. I have to say that I was convinced we would not get on it, but I remembered I was married to Christie. As we pulled in, she leapt from the taxi with my wallet and disappeared into the terminal leaving me to haul in the bags and the kids. As we entered the ...

OK so if I´d stopped and thought about it for more than 5 seconds I would have realised I was way off track... but I had this fantasy that I would be sailing the Galapagos on this gorgeous 40ft sailboat, visiting some islands to see the animals, snorkelling in crystal clear, tropical waters and relaxing up on deck at all other times...<br><br>The reality was we were on a cruise boat which was spread over 3 levels including ...

... in a completely new place. I am hanging out in Puerto Ayora now for the evening and leaving on the 2:00 ferry tomorrow for Isabela!<br><br>On the bus ride across Santa Cruz (from the airport to the port) there was a movie playing advertising the Galapagos and documenting short segments of some of th emost popular islands. I enjoyed looking out the window more than watching the film but it had this very mellow background music that was like the soundtrack to my life if it were a ...