The afternoon’s activity was kayaking. Resulting from my paranoia about sunburn (I am a pasty pasty white canadian not used to equator-strength UV rays – I have reason for my paranoia!!), I wound up kayaking with sunscreen in my eyes. I do not recommend this. I cried my face off as we paddled by penguins, frigate birds, blue footed boobies and pelicans. After returning the kayaks and washing my eyes out with a hose, I still cried my way through snorkeling in lava crevices. We saw a tiger eel, eagle rays, a manta ray, more sharks, more oodles of bright coloured gorgeous fish, and sea lions and marine iguanas.

I forgot my socks at the snorkeling place, so I had an excuse for a nice solitary walk to see if I could retrieve them in the evening. I didn’t manage to find my socks, but I did find some locally made chocolate bars. Which, together with some eye drops from Jeannie, did the trick to cure my crying. Finally.

As our gang was on the way to supper, Jeannie and I were impressed by a beautiful yellow flowered vine on a storefront. It didn’t have much aroma though… And then as we hurried to catch up with our group, our hotel manager was having a laughing fit, and pointed out that those were fake flowers! No wonder they didn’t have any fragrance! How kind of us to give everyone a good chuckle. After supper we went for a local beer tasting and got a tour of the brewing room from the very enthusiastic owner/brewmaster. Vanderhoof, watch Jeannie and I are gettingideas! I really enjoyed the blonde and red ale, and surprisingly, also the passionfruit beer, as fruit beer is not usually my jam. Fresh water on the islands is not in great supply and the mineral content varies considerably between rainy and dry season, so this makes brewing extra complex. (On both Isabella and Santa Cruz island, the tap water is a little brackish… you feel slightly sticky after showering)

On the way back to the hotel, Jeannie and I sat in the back of the local church midnight mass for a few minutes.

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