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spots and met a handful of visiting sailors who were all excited about the diving, fishing,
and hiking around these islands. It was inspiring and we wanted to bring Déjà vu around
the island as soon as possible.
We were just in time to catch the return bus, and this time, with a different driver. We were
able to take in the interesting countryside without fear of hurtling down a ravine or rolling
several times down a hill. The island was pretty dry overall, but there were bushes, shrubs,
cacti, and a green belt supported by the river that we forded again. There were several
huge boulders strewn about by giant hands and the gentle, sloping hills reminded me again
of lunarscapes. We spoke to the Army Captain upon returning to Pelican Lagoon and in-
formed him of our intention to leave the following morning for Academy Bay. “Si, that es
good señor.”
We had another peaceful night of fishing, eating dinner in the cockpit, playing guitar, and
having a few glasses of wine before turning in for the night. We had hauled the dinghy up
on the deck to keep the pelicans off this time. I had a nightmare in which I was grappling
the steering wheel from a very young, out-of-control bus driver who was trying his best to
kill all his crew.
We set sail fairly early, waved farewell to the army captain and his friendly deputy, and
headed for the windward side of Santa Cruz. We hugged the shoreline and saw countless
different marine and land animals. There were schools of sea lions sunning themselves on
the grey rocks, “ark arking” at us if we ventured too close to the harem. Strange-looking
land iguanas darted about with frilly, hooded necklaces around their prehistoric necks.
Booby birds with blue feet were everywhere. Flightless cormorants, flocks of charming,
little, waiter-like penguins who strutted around (hard to imagine what they were doing in
all this heat), and other unknown birds were seen. We were disappointed not to see any
tortoises but imagined they were sensibly plodding around in the shade somewhere. (We
were going to go to the Darwin museum, and we might see some there.) We did also see
a few green turtles skipping about near the shore swimming along unperturbed with their
beautiful, greenish yellow carapaces glinting in the tropical, clear water. Giant rays were
sometimes spotted gracefully flying below in the clear, blue water.
Within the day we had dropped a Danforth anchor in the clear water in Academy Bay in the
neighborhood of some four or five other yachts. As requested, we rowed ashore and cleared
in to the customs office and were given a two-week visa. The Galapagos Archipelago was
declared a marine reserve, and the authorities in Ecuador were very strict about tourism and
visitors. One had to apply months in advance, and if lucky one was granted a visa, depend-
ing on how many visitors were expected at that time. They would only grant two to three
week visas at a time.
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