Buses only run to the airport in the morning so we had to catch a taxi. Waited at the airport for our sailing companions. There was an American couple in their 70s, a New Zealand couple of a similar age, an English/Australian woman travelling on her own and 4 younger people from Australia and NZ. The guide was a woman called Jocelyn in her 30s and born on San Cristobal island.

An inflatable (‘panga’) took us in the bright sunshine to the Beagle yacht (Beaglé in Spanish). A large UK-built yacht. Decently sized cabins.

We set off the short distance to Las Bachas, a sandy beach on the north of Santa Cruz. Before we even leave the boat, a rare sight; even the captain grabbed his camera. A sealion had caught and killed a large parrot fish and was repeatedly slapping on the surface of the sea in an attempt to break it up. It tried this time and time again, eventually attracting the attention of frigate birds and pelicans, who failed to snatch it.

The sealion and the dead parrot fish

Circling frigate birds

We had boarded the panga for a wet landing. Pretty beach with some marine iguanas. Unsuccessfully looked for flamingos in a shallow lake but found 3 iguanas instead, comically trying to cross the pool in a weird dance.

You can’t get too close