Day 15: Another day of rest?

My tummy is making life uncomfortable but then I suppose considering all water is contaminated and has to be boiled, I´m lucky not to have gone down with something sooner.

I didn´t get up till 07:30 and it felt like I´d had a lie-in. I wonder if I´ll become an earlier riser when I´m back home?

I go to breakfast with the others and a Swedish man with blood-shot eyes introduces himself as being extremely hungover. He suggests we have the hamburgers for breakfast. The others agree this is a wonderful idea but I have toast and coffee. He is travelling round the world on a very small yacht as a casual crew member - he couldn´t sail before but now he can. Next stop, New Zealand!! Does he know how big the Pacific is? It seems he does but with the amount of alcohol obviously still in his bloodstream, I don´t think he really cares!

We all go our separate ways for the day and I go to the Interpretation Centre by taxi for $1 as I´m pushed for time. I have a quick look round this information centre on Galapagos and learn a few more things I didn´t already know but I think it´s geared for school age students. I don´t have time to walk the Frigatebird trail, especially as I was thereabouts last weekend and it´s hot, so I walk back to town. I take a final classic photo of a seal having some time off:

I jump straight into my new fave air con internet café and do some more to my blog. Sadly, there is no way I´m going to finish it up to date today and this is probably my last chance before going on the cruise next Wednesday.

I leave it to the wire and end up rushing back to the hostel to pick up my bag before getting into the waiting taxi.

There has obviously been a lot of rain in the Highlands this weekend as the approach road and the footpaths within the station are extremely muddy. But it´s still good to be "home".

As I approach the Casa Neuva, I hear a lot of girlie laughter - the girlies have moved in as they don´t like it in the Old House. The place is so much noisier. Still, I´m leaving on Tuesday night, so I´ll put up with it. Irina, on the other hand can´t wait to move out to the Old House as she says the place won´t be the same without me.

I take my camera down to the toilet block to try and take a photo of my friend the yellow warbler. He has kept me company each time I go there to wash and I´m sure I can capture a good shot. (remember it´s still working as the previous pages were written retrospectively)

However, despite lying in wait, he´s so fast and a little twitchy. If I wait by the mirror, he flies onto the tap by the laundry slab. If I wait by the tap, he flies onto the mirror. I take a few and they´re not very good but worth a look at the best:

He´s on the mirror which is hanging above the sink - I don´t know if this picture can be "opened" on Blogspot to show it in its full glory but no doubt you´ll see it when I get home.

I watch him getting in under the shelf and into the cracks eating insects and he picks at the gilt on the frame before the light goes.

We have vegetable spaghetti bolognese for tea but I leave the beg and only eat half the pasta.

Irina went to Santa Cruz this weekend and saw Lonesome George but the rumours are that he´s died as he hasn´t moved since Tuesday. Guess I´ll find out when I go there on the cruise.

It rains again this evening so it´s officially going to be muddy right up till I leave.

It´s also Belinda´s last night. I´m going to miss her. She and I have become good pals.

We play "predicting the future" game. I don´t know why. Boredom I guess. It´s a kid´s game. That´s it. There are too many kids in the house (no offence). Time to go.

Irina goes to bed at 7:30 pm after falling asleep in the hammock. She had a couple of late nights I think on Santa Cruz!

When I go to bed at 9 pm her Ipod is still playing. During the night I wake and hear something crashing around in the bushes. Probably a wild pig. There´s no way I´m going for a pee with that on the loose. I just hope I don´t really, really need to go to the toilet block!