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Tuesday May 8th started with an early rise and the temptation to wake the woman who had woken us the day before. She was the hostel owners mother and had woken us up quite early the day before with loud knocking followed by 5 minutes of uncomprehendable Spanish before she finally gave up at our lack of understanding and walked away. Guess it wasn´t that important. We made our way to the dock to catch our 7:00 boat back to Santa Cruz. I had forgotten to put on my sea-sickness patch, so I popped a couple of pills hoping they would kick in.
Another boat using the only dock spot delayed our departure so after the security people had cleared our bags (they check for fruits, veggies, etc.) Sarah went to grab a snack while I hid from the sun. I was actually happy for the delay thinking it may give my pills enough time to kick in.
Sea sickness can really ruin your day, as I had unfortunately experienced many times before. It runs in the family. I don't recall a time getting sea sick with my father, but I know he is very prone. I do remember
feeding the fish next to my mother in the Florida Keys. And who could forget Katy's enjoyable fishing trip in Costa Rica? Jill, maybe she did not get that gene, I can't recall a time she got sick? I am not sure when my father discovered the Transderm patch, but I know it is the one option that never fails. Unfortunately it takes about 4 hours to kick in so having pills that work within an hour or two is a good backup.
Fortunately for me the seas that day were kind. So kind in fact that when we passed north of Santa Fe Island the ocean looked like a lake on a windless day.
We arrived in Santa Cruz in about two hours, secured our shocking shower room at Hostal Darwin, grabbed breakfast at our favorite place (French Toast today), and had a visit with Betty. Betty let us know she would take care of making sure we had snorkel equipment on the boat. We asked her about a wetsuit for Sarah since she was very cold on the Kicker Rock trip and Betty said to come back tomorrow and she would see what she could do. Betty is great. She was exhausted, but still spent an hour talking to us about all kinds of things, especially her very independent 9 year old girl and her very dependent 6-month old pre-mature baby girl. We asked Betty about doing a day trip to Floreana the next day and she advised us to just rest up. The cruise will be busy and a day trip to Floreana would not really add much to what we would already be seeing on our cruise. I am really glad we booked the trip through Betty. She sells these day trips so to get an honest opinion like that from her was really nice.
In the afternoon, after we had waited out the heat of the day, we headed back over to the Charles Darwin Research Center to go say hi to Lonesome George again. After a 30 ish minute walk we arrived at his pen and were peering in to see if we could see him. It took a little, but finally we realized he had his butt to us and wasn´t moving, much like the first time we saw him. We hung out for a while, enjoying the quiet, hoping George would move even a leg (he didn't) and watching a cactus finch dance on the railing. It was very peaceful.
On the walk out of the research center we ran in to Rodger (the professor from the Guayaquil airport) and his wife. We made plans to meet up with them for dinner and an hour later, 7:30, we were back at the Galapagos Deli where we had eaten lunch a few hours before. The company was good, the pizza so-so. When we left we were still starving so we went for round 2 of dinner at the kiosks with a good carne with rice and beans . It was a good end to the day.
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