TWO SEPARATE ADVENTURES

Well, as we made our way down for breakfast, I have to admit I wasn't feeling that energized. Not that I didn't want to do anything, but just not anything to adventurous. Tom on the other hand had been planning at some point to try to get to the Wall of Tears by bike. We decided, (and by the way I had never ever intended to attempt the Wall of Tears, cause I knew it was a no go for me and would be frustrating; why ruin Tom's goal) that today Tom would do his adventure and I would do mine....whatever that was going to be. Let me tell you Tom's adventure was much more adventurous than mine ....so for the Wall of Tears[

The Spanish name for the Wall of Tears i "Muro de las Lagrimas. If you look in the Lonely Planet book you will note that it says the wall is 7 km from Puerto Villamil....Tom says that is not the case. There is still quite I ride ....which is not paved and is dirt and then you get to the park entrance and register. There is no shade while you are riding.

So the park guy looked at Tom and his bike (which was rented and not ultra fancy doo-da) and gave him the look; probably something like you're crazy. Beyond that point it was all uphill for several more kms. Beside Tom was a gentleman who hiked, around Tom's age - from somewhere in Europe. We later found out that a woman and her teen children had attempted to walk up to the wall three times but quit; however by the time they left the Island, they had completed the walk.

The wall is a 100m long wall of lava rock built by convicts.

The penal institution was closed in 1959 but still stands. On the way to the wall Tom passed a cemetery and near the top of the hill he had to park his bike.

After taking some beautiful pictures of seascapes, pictures of caves, ]Tom realized after the fact that it was not the wisest of things to do without his cell phone and trying to explore the small caves as the tide is coming in.

As Tom was heading towards his bike, guess what, there in the wild he saw a tortoise. How exciting, this is the way it's supposed to be ...this is what all the hard work is for.....to have the animals re-introduced into the wild.

It was also pretty interesting to find out that Tom also passed a sign advising of the controlled hunts that take place for animals and plants that negatively affect the natural habitat.

By the time Tom made it to base camp, I had my own adventure to tell. After doing some reading, I decided to head on down to the Concha de Perla Bay to see if there were any sea lions I could snorkel with. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-wHhFGRBGY

Luckily (or so I thought) there was a group of people already at the bay. Since there was no hearing of any sea lion adventures, I decided I would snorkel the outer rim of the bay because I heard someone mention that there were marine turtles about half way around. So off I start....woops, forgot my bathing cap, oh well........Every once and a while I would surface up to get my bearings. I was a fair ways from the dock and maybe half way to the point where the marine turtles were supposedly located. I decided since I was by myself, I'd make my way back ...and every once and a while come back to surface to check my bearings....so far so good. Hmm, this is interesting, the water is getting cooler....didn't feel that before....bop back up and the dock is no where in site but I can hear the voices. Looking over to my immediate left I see the docking bridge for the boats that are arriving and I start swimming towards there....the water is shallow, but darn, I have to climb onto lava rocks....ouch, I didn't wear my water socks and those lava rocks are slippery. The Sally Light Foot Crabs pay no attention to me, but I try to avoid them, after all, this is the Galapagos, I don't want to hurt one of them.

As I approach the shore, a couple of the workers say hi to me, I act like no big deal just happened and make my way back to the dock from whence I started. As I'm leaving, I walk past a couple of lazy sea lions, who are much more relaxed than me at this point of time. Lesson learned....water socks, and don't forget the bathing cap (I tend to get ear infections. )

So we share our adventures, grab our meals...of course with a brew and head back to our room. Our next adventure is a tour to the volcano. We're pretty excited about that. It's about a whole day with a guide and only cost $35 U.S. each. We're going to up early, so we hit the sack early.