Galapagos Passage & Welcome - Jo

We left Bahia de Caraquez/mainland Ecuador after being there for about 10 days...it was more of a cruising community than Puerto Lucia so fun to meet up with some boats that are doing the same stuff we are.  Other reason for going there was cheap fuel..the last we will see for a long long time.  Did alot of boat prep and a bit more provisioning, some relaxing and hanging out.  We left for Galapagos on Sat. the 12th about noon on a rising tide...it was hairy going thru the sand bar with waves crashing against us(I hid my eyes a little of the time) but ended up just fine...so West we go and off into the great Pacific.  The first of many passages on this big big ocean.  Our first day out was quite pleasant/reasonable winds and for a change little seas.  By day two that had changed and the winds came up pretty strong and as usual not in the direction we hoped for.  Seas were quite lumpy and we heeled to a less than comfortable degree.  By that night poor Zak was quite seasick so we were down to 3 for watch tho that is what we will have to get used to as Zak will be leaving us in early Jan. and going back to the states.  Still working out the details of what he will do to finish up this gap  year but boats, sailing and being out here so unconnected to the internet are not his thing and so all have decided that it best he ducks out here.  By day 3 we decided to motor sail as we could make it in the next day and not have to do a 4th overnight.  Did that off and on which did in fact allow us to spot LAND HO early am on Tues.  Nice sight to see the high mountains of the Galapagos on the horizon and we had a lovely bunch of hours in a comfortable sail towards San Cristobal, our first stop.  Back to turquoise blue waters but not nearly as warm as the Caribbean.  Friendly town here but we are finding that you really can not do much on your own without tours/guidesand therefore major expense.  Yesterday we did an excursion to a place called Kicker Rock and did some snorkeling.  Saw Galapagos sharks, sea turtles,some large fish,marine iguanas, blue footed boobies, frigate birds, and lots of sea lions.  There are so many sea lions here and they have no fear of people...we are having a hard time keeping them off our boat which is a no no due to oil,mess and such on the transom.  Thurs we had taken our bikes and gone for what we thought was a 10 km ride up to a volcanic crater lake...however it was more like 17 k and was basically a straight up ride.  So after 3 hrs and lots of complaining and huffing and puffing we aborted and headed back down...thinking we had experience the highlands and would take the taxi the El Junco(the crater) on our way to the other side of the island next week.  Upon arriving back in town we did find that we had climbed 2000 ft up on those bikes and should have listened to the girl tour guide who suggested taking a truck with the bikes a good part of the way up rather than the young/strong guy guide who said no problema...ride up.  It only took Gram 9 minutes to get down, while I took 15 not being gutsy enough to barely brake.  Have figured out a few more activities we want to do here and will most likely stay thru Christmas as this feels like a good anchorage and the next one(Santa Cruz) is a bit more uncertain though in a larger town. Bill's brother Matt and family(Dawn, Adrienne and Simon) fly in to S. Cruz on the 31st so we will have good reason for a New Year's celebration. They will be in the Galapagos for a week and we will all spend some time on Santa Cruz and then move to Isabella.  Wishing all of you a merry merry Christmas, happy Hanukah, and peaceful New Year.  We miss all our friends at home but are having for the most part a great time.  lots of love...Jo