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Columbus Day and Canadian Thanksgiving

Today was Columbus Day in the states, Canadian Thanksgiving in Canada and some sort of holiday in Ecuador.  Guess it was fitting that we were ending our Galapagos adventure on this day.

We disembarked on San Cristobal Island which is the governmental seat of the Galapagos and one of the larger islands.  However, the town was very run down and desparately in need of a face lift.  On our dingy ride into port, we amused ourselves by watching the sea lions making themselves at home on the boats in the harbor.  The mayor had even built a dock just for them to try to get them to stay off the boats, but they wouldn't have anything to do with it!  Unfortunately, some of the boat owners did not like them trespassing, so they put barbed wire and nails along the sides of their boats to discourage them.  This was horrible!  It definitely could cause serious injury to the sea lions.  Edwin filmed many of the boats and will be turning them into the authorities.  He also is reporting other illegal and detrimental behavior we saw during our voyage - i.e. cleaning the outside of the boats with bleach or other chemicals, feeding the animals, going off trail, illegally diving or fishing.....  Unfortunately, money talks even when you have endangered species!

I had some problems with my flight, so was wait-listed to go back to Guayaquil.  I was hoping that they would have one seat for me, 'cuz I didn't know when I'd be able to get off the island.  Luckily, I did get on and there was not one spare seat!  I left my new friends on the plane to go on to Quito as I got off in Guayaquil.  Sad to say good-bye!

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