Unfortunately I think I’ve scared everyone about tonight’s crossing from Santa Cruz to Genovesa — it was a lot of fun on the trip in 1999, but hopefully there won’t be too much vomit from this crew. Anyhow, today’s events were an early morning trip to the Charles Darwin research station followed by a tiny bit of shopping in Puerto Ayora — seeing a car again was a bit odd, although I did buy a great hat from the National Park kiosk. Rather than spending too much time in town Skip, JB, Aaron and I took off for the trail to Tortuga Bay, which is a perfect white sand beach accessible only by a mile and a half long trail from town. The body surfing was great, a frisbee briefly appeared, and Aaron even found some wreckage from a boat that turned into a skimboard (splinters, jagged metal and all).
Greg arranged a van to the highlands for the afternoon and we set off for a lava tube that was the size of a subway tunnel, some tortoise chasing, and a bit of bird watching. The vermilion flycatchers seemed to have a talent for flying off immediately before I hit the shutter button, but Aaron walked away with a great photo on his digital camera. On the drive back Greg and I were talking about ways that I could come back to the islands in the future — the options at this point look like taking a research position, becoming a “professional” photographer, or else arranging future trips — anyone interested in visiting some day, let me know 😉