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Enroute to Galapagos

Galapagos

I am not HOT!!!! Can you believe it? It is perfect here! The average temperature is....are you ready for this.....22 degrees!!! This IS the promise land.

Ok, so do you remember me saying that I couldn't imagine life getting any better? Well it has. We arrived in Galapagos early Friday morning. Amelia won the coin toss and got to hail GROMIT on the vhf. It was so surreal to hear them respond and know we were so close. The last 3 miles seem to take forever. Finally they were in sight.

We brought Artemo right up beside them. They had a huge banner strung up that read, "We love you Artemo!". It was so heartwarming. We were all smiling and yelling back and forth. I tell you it is wonderful to arrive in such a beautiful place but it is even better to arrive in a beautiful place and have friends to greet you. Gromit had their friends Don and Dennis on board too. Don is an independent film maker. We looked over and there was this high tech camera filming our reunion! Just what I wanted after 12 days at sea with only 1 sponge bath....a camera on me! Ha. I am hoping the high def didn't pick up the Amazon like underarms.....etc!!! It will be really cool to see what he puts together.

Once we had the anchor down the Gromits all hopped into their dinghy and over they came for hugs, banana bread, coffee and croissants. You can imagine that there were a few tears shed. It was just so unbelievable to all be together again. Happy, happy, happy. We had a huge reunion dinner on Gromit that night. They invited another really great couple from Canada. All together there were 13 of us on board their 47 foot boat but you never would have known it. Cornelia and Mike made a fantastic meal. Graham and I cracked a good bottle of wine and I kept thinking to myself that I didn't want the day to ever end.

We have jammed packed our days full with seeing the sites. Galapagos is soooooo my kinda place. There are so many trails all over the island. There are lots of great park facilities to hike around and read about the history of the Galapagos and the best part is that everything is free?? So nice. Eating out is really cheap to. You can go for a huge lunch for $2.50!!!

There are so many cool animals around that we are constantly in awe. There are sea lions and seals everywhere. The morning we arrived as we were all having coffee in the cockpit the cutest seal jumped up into the Gromits dinghy. He looked so cute with his flipper pushing himself up to look at us all. Again I was just hoping I didn't wake up from this really fantastic dream.

Yesterday the kids swam and snorkeled with the seals. Alex and Amelia played for quite awhile with this young pup. He was jumping up and twirling all around them. He would swim right up to their faces and zoom away. We got such a great underwater video. We all hiked to another beach to meet up with Gromit and the kids went for another snorkel. As Cornelia and I were chatting on the stone dock we look over and there is a blue footed boobie bird!! I so wanted to see one of these birds. The Galapagos are known for them. They are so strange with their very blue feet. We let out a hoot and holler and clapped our hands!! I am thinking of getting Graham one of the t-shirt that reads..."I love boobies"! ha

We have seen tortoises and turtles and lizards. We have also visited the volcano and hiked around it. I seriously love it here. The girls are in town right now on their own. Amelia has $12 and is so excited to be poking through all the shops and finding treasures. The town is so pretty and clean. The people here are very kind and respectful. There is a fantastic little bakery and great little juice smoothly places and all so affordable. We haven't had to spend any time trying to figure out where anything is. The Gromits have been fantastic tour guides. Oh I forgot to mention one of the best parts.....you can just drop your laundry off (bags and bags of it) and then come back later that day and it is all clean, fresh and folded!! LOVE IT.

We are going to be looking to head off across the South Pacific next weekend. We have a few jobs to finish before that.....our removable inner forestay broke underway, our steering needs a permanent fix, the engine needs some maintenance and our front hatch is still taking in way to much water. Even in paradise there is still much work to do! Cornelia and I are going to restock up with fruits, veggies, meat and drinks. We have to organize propane, diesel and water to. Oh such fun! None of this seems like work though because of the GLORIOUS TEMPERATURE!!!!

ps....I am grateful for the GROMITS!