 We have been very busy since we arrived in San Cristobal. After a day of clearing in and finding our landlegs again we went to visit the interpretation centre to find out all about the history of the islands, we also took a hike from the centre up Frigate Hill where we saw nesting Frigate birds and Darwins statue. The next day we took a tour with Matt & Togs from Helene. We went to the largest extinct volcanoe, to visit the giant tortoises, to a beach with loads of marine iguanas and all around the island. It was a great day which ended with lunch at our guide´s house. The iguana´s were my favourite, they were huge and not scared of us at all. We were so sad to learn that there are only a few giant tortoises on San Cristabal that are not in the protective sanctuary. Unfortunately introduced animals and plants have lead to them being close to extinct here. They were great to see though even in a sanctuary, the oldest one we saw was over 100 years old, the youngest just 30 days.
The next day we went diving. We are here with Ellen & Nick from Kika, Will & Alyssa from Ragtime and Matt & Togs from Helene. We all went diving with Victor from Challo Tours for the day. Victor picked us all up from our boats and we sped off to a beatiful bay just outside the anchorage. We did our dive checks surrounded by sealions and huge fish before zooming off to Leon Dormido - a group of rocks just off the coast. As soon as we went down we saw Galapagos sharks, they came quite close enough for my liking, they were about 2 m long and quite beautiful. We also saw loads of turtles, rays and loads of incredible fish. We did a second dive after lunch in the hope of seeing hammerhead sharks but we didn´t see any but still had an incredible dive. The water is really cold here as we are in a cold current from south america, even so we couldn´t resist getting in the water again for a bit of snorkelling on the way back.
 We have been having a great time with our friends here too. Every night we seem to be at one boat or another for dinner or drinks. Sandy, Joan & Warwick on Zeffrin arrived yesterday, we also have met up with Pepe & Bianca from Arjo and a group of Swedes on a very small boat. Last night Helene had 13 of us for dinner, Matt & Togs put on a splendid feast and we drank and ate far too much.
Now it´s back to boat jobs to prepare for the next leg of our Pacific crossing - from Galapagos to Marqueses - about 3000 miles.
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