My, these early mornings are getting earlier! This is not a holiday for sleep lovers!

We had to breakfast early as the ship was being inspected by the authorities this morning. Nice breakfast though with bacon and eggs, juice, fruit and fresh bread again. Nick stayed for a small piece of watermelon, Brian never appeared at all. The joys of being a gin drinker!

The panga took us to a small jetty near to the Darwin Breeding Centre.  We had to be careful not to step on a small colony of young marine iguanas on the jetty. There was also a common sea lion lounging around in the shallows. Apparently they do this when resting, after an exhausting fishing trip. These animals on Galapagos really don't have any fear of humans at all.

The Breeding Centre was actually really tedious, as Hebe said we were not there to see captive animals being bred for science, we want to see them in their natural state.  
This was where Lonesome George lived. Lonesome George was the last remaining giant tortoise from a sub species living on the isle of Pinta. He was brought to the Breeding Centre for research. I was not the only person in the party who thought it a little heartless to remove him from his island and stick him in a pen!! They tried to breed from him with other sub species who shared some of his genes but with no success. Maybe he thought ' Sod that, they brought me here to this prison and I am not procreating for anyone ' - or maybe he was gay??

We were all done there by 9am and we then had over two hours for shopping. This in a town that wins the gold ribbon for some serious tat shops.! How would you like to buy a Blue Footed Booby teapot? Yours for $60. Everything was horrendously overpriced and tacky. So we stopped for a beer at a cafe across from a small fish store, selling this morning's catch.

This proved to be the highlight of the morning.

Pelicans are complete thugs and can be very opportunistic and learn very quickly when there is easy food available. As you can imagine, word had got round about the filleting going on and they were there mob handed, clamouring for scraps.

Sitting quietly attentive, next to the head filleter, was a full grown sea lion. She was not pestering, but waiting patiently for anything on offer, just like a loyal pet dog. Meanwhile a pelican had grabbed a large fish skin and was gulping it down. Suddenly all the others noticed and tried to grab the end of the skin that was still sticking out of its bill. There followed a complete maelstrom of bodies, feathers and fish skin as they all tried to pull the skin out of the pelican's throat. They were so busy squabbling that they didn't realise a second sea lion had entered the scene. The sea lion grabbed the skin and swallowed it whole, then chased off all the pelicans. Hebe and I were nearly knocked over!

It was really quite comical to see a sea lion join a queue of shoppers at the front of the counter, nobody batted an eyelid.

Aftef a couple of beers it was back on the panga for lunch on board. Pasta today, Ayla would have loved it.

There has been a certain amount of discontent about today's programme, but it has been determined by the Galapogan authorities and we are not really allowed to deviate for the good of the flora and fauna.  Some of the guests have gone off to a beach nearby for a swim, but there are horseflies there the size of an Apache helicopter, so I have stayed on board for a spot of R&R.

On their return, everyone seemed to have enjoyed the beach. Not to worry though, I had enjoyed lounging around too and having some private Me Time!

My video of the sea lions at the fishmongers has gone down a storm. It just shows that is pure luck to be there at the right time, David Attenborough I'm not!

We ate early this evening as we had to leave early to get to Isabela Island. It will be a 12 hour trip overnight. I've decided to get an early night and recharge my batteries .... on the camera and Note, as well as my own.