We awoke our second morning on the Samba again to the 7:00 a.m. breakfast bell...which has become music to our ears.  We took our panga out to Isla Floreana and witnessed for the first time green beach sand.  We also saw the damage that the feral goats had done to the island's vegetation; essentially eating it all, leaving a somewhat stark and barren landscape.  After a snorkel and another delicious lunch, we visited the oldest post office on the islands.   Originally established by the pirates, this mail system operates on the good Samaritan principle.  People leave their letters or postcards without postage in a small barrel.  When others visit, they look at the addresses.  If one is addressed to a location close to their home or destination, tradition obligates them to personally deliver the letter to the addressee.  This system is responsible for many marriages of people meeting each other through this odd system.  We dropped off two postcards and picked up two...hoping that we do not lose them before we return home to Atlanta for a short time in December.

Following our visit to Isla Floreana, we set off on our 11 hour journey to Isla Isabela, the largest of the Galápagos Islands, located on the western edge of the archipelago.

Kelly and Jan (pronounced Yon) inspect the green sand of one of Isla Floreana's beaches.  This sand was created by volcanic rocks

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Kelly and Fritz enjoy a moment on a Floreana beach.  As usual, Fritz is making Kelly laugh.  Fritz is 78 years of age going on 30.

Kelly mails a post card for "free" from the island post office.  Let's hope that it makes it to its lucky recipient.

Once again, we are enjoying a large, delicious lunch prepared by Augustine.  Here is Rich (USA), Edo (The Netherlands) and Frank (Germany).

Going around the table, we have Jan (The Netherlands). Bernd (Austria) and Marga (Germany).

Werner (Prussia) and Karin (Germany).

Fritz (Indonesia) enjoys the entire carcass of a chicken.

Fran (USA) tries to explain Fritz's love for chicken carcasses while Kelly (USA) scrapes her plate for every last morsel of food.

After our brief visit to the post office and our delicious lunch, we returned to the Samba for an 11 hour journey on the seas of the Pacific.

The seas were angry that day my friends....like an old man sending back soup in a deli.  As a result, this is Rich's view during part of the day from the porthole of our cabin as he sat in bed suffering from a mild bout of sea sickness.

Augustine, our very talented and hardworking chef, is talked into coming out to the salon to model in his pajamas.

Pepe (our captain), Hernand, Kelly and Jan chillin in the salon of the Samba.   Hey, who's driving the boat?

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