The lava
tunnels snorkelling trip was a highlight. We spent a good part of a day with
some the crew from Lisa Kay, Jack from Cat Weazle as well as a couple of fly in
tourists on a small boat exploring the marine life and the geology of the lava
tunnels in the water nearby. Our dead-ringer-for-John-Travolta-skipper,
Leonardo, expertly gunned the boat over the reef into the calmer waters beyond.
We spotted very cute penguins and blue footed boobies immediately. In the water with our snorkelling gear on, we
swam amongst a school of yellow tailed surgeon fish and saw numerous other
fish. The day just got better and better as Leonardo manoeuvred the boat
through the narrowest of channels in the lava rock, passing bridges of black
rock and cactus growing out of fissures and cracks. We looked down on aqua
coloured pools and saw green turtles and spotted eagle rays rays swimming to
and fro. I spotted a shark from above and others saw them while snorkelling. We
snorkelled all around; swimming into gloomy caves to find an opening at the end
to take us back out into the sunlight and another stunning pool. (Oh Dan, you
would have loved it so much) Back on the boat we shot back out through the reef
and over to another area to swim with turtles. They are so very gentle and
really don’t seem fazed when humans get close to them. Finally, back out in the
ocean and heading for home, Leonardo slowed the boat when he spotted a huge
manta ray. Those who wanted to quickly donned snorkelling gear and swam over to
it. I stayed in the boat and it was funny to hear the hooting and honking
noises coming from people’s snorkels as they got so excited about being so close
to the huge creature.
The next
day we went on a trip to Sierra Negra, the volcano on the island that is second
only in size to the largest in the world which is in Tanzania. Its caldera is
12 miles by 10 miles, and I can tell you it looks huge! Steam rises in places
and the surface that you look down on from above looks somewhat like cracked
and crusted bitumen after an earthquake. To get to the volcano we walked about
10km from where the bus dropped us off. We also saw Volcan Chico, and were able
to walk on its surface, in some places feeling warm air venting through cracks
from way down below. As we walked the 10km back to the bus, it bucketed rain on
us and turned some of the track to mud, but Lisa Kay’s Tootsie Roll Pops kept
morale high!
We do of
course also have days where we don’t play tourist. There are always jobs to do
on Brio, whether it’s putting a coat of paint on rust spots, getting the bar
under the boom repaired, sweeping up the hair that just seems to fall
everywhere or cleaning the algae off the hull. Ivan has spent some time making
a centreboard and rudder for our Walker Bay dinghy so he can use it as a
sailing boat (aaagh! Another one!). It’s still not quite right yet, but soon….
We were up
early this morning and walked to where the pink flamingos are known to hang out
and there they were. They were lovely to watch going through their morning
routine of feeding and grooming. They are amazing to see in flight as they are
so big.
We expect
we will leave this lovely island on Wednesday. PS. Sorry, no pics – way too
slow to upload.
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