Today we were going to spend the day with Duncan, our guide who took us to visit the Darwin Museum and the fish cleaning on the docks. See that building in the middle of the picture? That is Picaya, a new luxury resort for those people who want to stay on land. We weren’t given the option of staying there on our trip. I wish we would have as they have their very own super deluxe yacht for their guests. I have looked up their price point since, and it is very high. Oh well. If you want a review, I suggest you head to TheGoodTheBadandtheLuxurious.com. It is a fantastic blog about luxury hotels. 
As we did not bring enough water with us for our walks we stopped off at the little mini mart for water. Only 60 cents for a bottle of water! Yay, my Ecuadorian grocery store! Another notch on my belt!
We drove further into the highlands to see some coffee trees.
Come along for the walk up the hill to enjoy the vista.
I forgot that I wanted a panoramic shot, but this will do.
We went back down the hill and got in the van, and saw this guy crossing the road. As he wasn’t a chicken, I didn’t bother asking him why he was crossing the road!
They were big, this one was shy.
Here is Duncan, you can compare the size of hunky man and tortoise!
This was another one down the road. He was pretty curious.
We went to see a crater, but thankfully only looked into it!
Here is a blooming prickly pear. See the yellow flowers?
These two trees are unusual to see growing near each other. The prickly pear on the left usually grows in the desert. The tree on the left generally only in the Highlands.
We went to the beach to do some sea kayaking. Let’s just say that we did it once, so I never had to do it again. It was a most unpleasant experience. My hips don’t like to be in a sea kayak. I was in a lot of pain and Steve had to paddle most of the time. We did see a few birds. From now on if sea kayaking is suggested we just say “No!”
Steve and I came back to the Royal Palm Hotel RoyalPalmGalapagos.com for lunch. Steve is trying to give me goo goo eyes because he knows I am all set to go off on a toot.
And lookie here. This is the alpha female of the foursome that hogs all the best spots. She came back from her morning’s adventures and is back, on the one table on the veranda. They sit here all breakfast, are here for lunch, and they will claim it again this afternoon to discuss the next day’s events, and then eventually order dinner. They were on the boat yesterday and one of the group gets on the boat first and nails the prime spots on the prow of the boat. Last night I asked the waiter if we could reserve the table for dinner tonight. This is why we usually don’t go on group tours. I am extremely sensitive to other people’s behaviors. My behavior of course, is exemplary. (Well, maybe not all the time!)
Steve and I only take less than an hour for dinner. What would have been nice, is if every group took turns sitting at the table. There were only six of us staying at the hotel at the time. So, it was quite annoying that they were able to sit at the table outside all the time. They could have sat at the table while planning the next day’s events, then had cocktails around the pool while we had our dinner at the table , and then they could have returned to the table for their dinner. But NO, it didn’t work out that way!
This was the lunch we had back at the hotel before our afternoon adventures. That hamburger has some seriously gloppy cheese on it!
Hmm, I wonder what foursome had their belonging strewn all over the chairs, but were no where in sight?
Lava Tunnel picture from the hotel website.
I took this picture. Our adventure of the day continued with explorations of a lava tunnel on the grounds of the Royal Palm. The former owner was said to have stored either his wine, or mozzarella cheese or both. I wasn’t sure what the real story was.
There were helmets and flashlights waiting for us in the bag.
Here we are, all helmeted up and ready to go! Steve always looks like the camera lens is off in the distance behind the camera. I, on the other hand am always ready for my close up!
This is a lava tunnel. It formed over 1 million years ago when a lava flow crusted over and hot lava continued to flow under the crust which is 2-3 feet thick. This tunnel has a nice path made by the hotel. Much easier going that’s the tunnel on Easter Island.
Here is a picture of what is called coral lava. It is not made from coral, it just looks like coral.
Here we see an upper and lower portion of the lava tunnel.
These are not stalactites, just lava that dripped and cooled as it hardened.
Here we are near the end of the lava tunnel. It was a much more pleasant trip than the Easter Island Lava Tunnel!
Up the ladder and on toward day light.
Next we are going to visit Ranch El Manzanillo, a coffee farm that has Galapagos Giant Tortoises on it! I call that a Double Play! Perhaps we might be able to make it a Triple instead! You can see the red coffee beans. They are all picked by hand. It is quite labor intensive.
We then drove off in search of the Galapagos Giant Tortoise. Did you know that the word Galapagos derives from the Spanish word for Tortoise?
The back feet are more stocky, and the front feet more flexible.
This is tortoise dung. You did want to see it, didn’t you?
It’s pretty big!
Tortoises can’t swim but they can float. They love to cool off in the water.
This tortoise is not very old. You can compare his size to Duncan’s leg.
They eat a lot of grass.
They bend the front leg over when they walk.
Sneaking up on a Galapagos Tortoise. Duncan knows just the shots to take!
In captivity a full grown Galapagos Tortoise can weigh up to 900 pounds! In the wild they are 500-600 pounds. It is said that they can live up to 200 years, but some of the data is anecdotal.
This guy is walking in shallow water. You can tell the female from the male tortoise as the female’s shell is muddier and scratched from wild Tortoise sex. No, we didn’t get to see any tortoise copulating!
Here you see a little video of the Galapagos Tortoise. Enjoy!
The Dashing Duncan Devine brought us to see Sr. Guerrero and his sugar cane distillery and coffee farm.
Here is Sr. Guerrero showing us where the sugar cane is crushed to make rum.
The sugar cane goes into the machine and out comes the juice into a metal bowl. The donkey that normally turn the wheel was not available so Steve and Duncan acted as he-men to push the wooden poles around. I got to try and feed the cane while Steve and Duncan pushed. I then tried to push while Steve fed the cane into the machine but it ended up “seizing up” and nothing happen. Steve’s family has stories about machines “seizing up”, I will likely have a chapter in my book about that!
The cane juice is put through a strainer.
It’s mixed with fresh ice and is ready to drink. The juice looked clear at first, but was a cloudy green when it was mixed with the ice.
This is Sra Guerrero with Sr. Guerrero.
We also got to try the sugar cane booze straight up. It was 60% alcohol or 120 proof. Steve says it’s called rum, not sugar cane booze.
Some of the rum cut with the sugar cane juice. It was refreshing, but packed a wallop!
The juice from the sugar cane is boiled down to a molasses.
Then it goes into the silver still.
And then into the wooden barrel. Salud!
We also got to see how coffee was roasted. Enough about how adventure, let’s go back to the Royal Palm.
We had a beautiful sunset again!
The hotels signature drink, called the Bachelor’s Delight. I told them I was renaming it the “Happily Married Woman’s Delight”!
So since the ugly American table hogs went to dinner in town, we got to sit at the outside table. Yay! You can see the tables in the background where they could have sat and done their planning for the next day. I am doing the crazy happiness pose for Steve. 
Since our stay the hotel has added more tables for people to sit at, and comfortable chairs to hang out on. I had suggested this when we checked out of the hotel.
The snapper we had for dinner was excellent. Too bad only the vegetables look good!
On the way back to our room we looked at the stars and saw Mars, Venus and Uranus! I would call the day a home run, we saw Galapagos Giant Tortoises wandering about, visited a coffee plantation, saw how rum was made and scored the coveted outside table!
Why can’t we all be friends?
Have you ever seen Galapagos Tortoises having sex?
Do you call it rum or sugar cane booze?
Do you have a cave to store wine and cheese in your back yard?