#5. FALKEN | Panama to Galapagos | Arrived in the Galapagos
Tuesday 25th of March, 00°10’1N 089°11.2’W 08:05 Local Time. 13:05 UTC
‘’Excuse us for the little radio silence. We had a few busy, but definitely amazing days! Not only did we cross the equator, but we arrived in the beautiful Galagos archipelago as well!”
At around 10 a.m. local time and 15 p.m. UTC the 25th, we crossed the equator!! While congratulations were happening, a lot more was going on. Besides King Neptune making its way to NORDIC FALKEN, hundreds of seabirds had their breakfast all along our starboard. Neptune had the pleasure of making sure the seven of us (including me!) that hadn’t crossed the equator before were worthy of becoming a shellback. The ceremony was perfectly arranged by Jim and was filled with a lot of giggles. It was a very special moment for everyone.
Yesterday we arrived at Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz! After having a bit of a struggle to find a nice place to anchor (it was quite busy), about ten or more immigration people checked everything onboard. Luckily we got cleared without a problem. Even the “forbidden” lunch meat, that Mary and I (as the 2/3 vegetarians on the boat) had been trying so hard to get people to eat, wasn’t a problem.
Right after we were allowed to get in a watertaxi to step on land, it started raining as if a waterpipe had exploded up above and this carried on the whole day. The crew went ashore for some walking around and Alex, Mary and I made sure the whole boat was fresh and clean again. We ended the day with a nice Ecuadorian dinner on Santa Cruz.
Today (the 27th) we went for a day-tour on the island. The day started with a visit to some very impressive craters and walking and crawling through a lava tunnel. After these exciting views it was time to see the giant tortoises (while getting bitten by a trillion fire ants). We ended the trip with a very hot, but very amusing bike ride back to the city-center. Some of us thought 2 hours downhill wasn’t adventurous enough and we started with a 30-min workout uphill. Which was definitely an amazing idea on the middle of the day just below the equator! ;)”
- Laura Blaauw | FALKEN Apprentice
ps. If you are reading this blog, please write some comments in the section below and we’ll send it over to the crew to read, I am sure they will love it :) - Mia & Andy (shore support on Leg 5, Panama to Galapagos)
