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Feb. 21 Random day on Isabella
I had extended my stay an extra day not realizing I didn’t have as much money with me as I thought I did; I had thought I brought my envelope of cash with me but realized I had left it on the boat after lending $100 to a crew member from one of the other yachts. I didn’t plan on doing any excursions so I was OK, but would still have to watch my spending. I picked up a pastry at a small bakery then went for the free breakfast, still having a voucher left over from last night.

These bums will sleep anywhere

My plans today were to snorkel at Concha y Perla and also down the beach from the hotel where I had heard that rays could be seen in the afternoon.
I walked down to Concha, my feet are really getting a workout this trip, and went into the cool refreshing water; it is now easy to see why the penguins prefer this area as they like cooler waters. The visibility wasn’t great, but not too bad either. I swam around the perimeter, hoping to catch a photo of a penguin or shark; as I was looking at some fish a sea lion wizzed by like he was shot out of a torpedo tube, no chance of getting a shot of him. It was an easy swim and I saw a lot of fish, but nothing different from what I had seen before.

The walkway to Concha y Perla


A small sea lion barks back at me


I walked around town, exploring the farther roads just to see what was about; I found a small supermarket with a decent selection of fresh produce but still lacking from what you would find in a more built up place. Some of the WARC crews were around as were the yellow shirts so I chatted with them and others I had met in my short time on the island.

Part of the WARC fleet at anchor


I headed down to the far end of the beach to see if I could spot any rays; the beach is long and wide with soft white sand; the changing of the tide was causing some large waves that a few surfers were taking advantage of. I looked for a section that seemed the least turbulent and waded out into the water, sure enough there were a few small black rays swimming around; however with the water being stirred up so much by the surf it was impossible to get a good shot of them, they are quite skittish too.

A beautiful white sand beach


It was late afternoon and I was feeling peckish since all I had eaten was my small breakfast. I decided to try and find someplace new for lunch and again headed for the back roads. A lot of the bars and restaurants close in the midday so I continued on until coming across a nice looking place on a back street. The Isabella Grill bills itself as a steakhouse, it is very nicely decorated inside and they have a good menu with many different types of steaks and even organ meats. Not wanting to eat a big meal at this time of day I opted for the chorizo sausage and fries. The four sausages were served on a small grill with a low charcoal fire under it, the fries were crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle, I could tell they were cooked to order. The food, presentation and service were excellent and I contemplated returning for dinner, unfortunately they don’t take credit cards and it would be cutting it too close to try to pay with cash.
I walked back down to Rosada Bar for happy hour only to find that it wasn’t open; it is election time here and the sale of alcohol is prohibited for 3 days. There were some people playing beach volleyball but not being able to even get water I decided to walk down the beach and maybe have a swim. As I passed the next bar I say all the usual suspects from the other yachts and they were drinking beer! What must have started out as just a coulpe people had ballooned into quite a party and the lady at the bar was getting nervous; each time someone would ask for a beer she would say “no we are closed” then after some begging on the part of the customer it would be “ok just one more then we are closed”. When she came to me I said I would prefer a large beer but would take water instead if I had too; soon I had a large bottle of lager in front of me just as the sun was getting ready to go down.

Sunset on the beach

When the bar actually did close everyone left, most of the crews opting for dinner and drinks onboard; I went back to Ceasers since I knew I had enough cash for a dinner there, wishing I had another $20 so I could have gone to the steakhouse. The taxi was coming at 5:20 am to take me to the ferry tomorrow so I had a little rum back at the hotel and made it an early night.