Finding Our Way to the Post Barrel

Finding our way to Floreana, and Post Office Bay, is proving to be a delicate issue of time. For whatever reason (we have yet to determine one) the Post Barrel is the most difficult part of the Galapagos to access. Our island of San Cristobal happens to be one of the easiest to traverse. You do not even need a guide to explore around the beaches and trails.This is not the case for the Post Barrel.

We have been able to find some cruises, even some that we can afford. We even found a couple of boats that will take us to the island of Floreana where the Post Barrel is, but you still can not get to the bay itself without a guide. We could just walk there from one of the local ferry points but it would come at the cost of destroying the heritage of man-kind and missing out on the Maverick Expedition as I sit in an Ecuadorian prison. And let me tell you, none of my experiences with South American prisons are good ones.

Our host on San Cristobal, William, made mention of helping us book am affordable cruise out to the islands but we were supposed to be leaving tomorrow morning and we have not heard from him for a couple of days now.

Great.

However! We are not deterred. The island of San Cristobal (and most of Ecuador) closes on Sunday, but at dawn tomorrow Tawny and I will be scouring the boardwalk looking for a ship to take us to Post Office Bay. Even if we have to swim, we are going to make it there.

Until then though we have been enjoying our time in this treasure box of the world. During the day we have gone swimming with sea lions and sea turtles as well as a few French and Dutch friends. Truly, we are in the twilight zone of nature. From iguanas that swim to birds that do not fly we are in a part of the world that we have never even come close to experiencing before. The Equatorial weather as remained constant to a minute. Every day the sun rises at six and sets at six. 365 days a year. For me this is just as strange as animals that have no natural fear of people. I, coming from 40 degrees latitude, have always associated heat with longer days. Here though the weather is based on currents and altitude, not the tilt of the Earth.

Technically it is ^winter^ right now. The colder Humbolt current has come up from the South and engulfed the islands. We took a trip across San Cristobal yesterday and encountered quite a brisk and rainy scene across the highlands. At 400m, the pass is not too high above sea level. It was enough to cause a major switch in weather though.

Today we are going to continue our exploration of San Cristobal, and then tomorrow we will hopefully embark to Floreana and Post Office Bay.

Wish us success, since luck runs out.