The Wall of Tears

We woke up this morning and found that nine new cruise ships had arrived to this anchorage during the night. After being in Galapagos for two weeks now, I think we have seen all of the different cruise boats that tour the waters here. They come in various shapes and sizes, from catamarans for groups of 12 to large ships taking more than a hundred passengers to dive boats dedicated to exploring all the dive sites around the islands. It is a good way to visit the Galapagos as every boat has a naturalist on board and they cover a lot of the islands picking up anchor in the evening and traveling to the next island during the night.

Our cruising permit only allows us to anchor at four of the islands and we can only visit many of the sites and other islands by joining a tour with a naturalist. But each island has some trips that you can do on your own, and so far it has been a good balance. The tours can be pricey but on the other hand the naturalists provide a lot of information on the animal, plant and sea life around you.

Yesterday we got together with True Blue and Kohiba and shared a taxi ride up to the old prison site. The crew from both True Blue and Kohiba are on their way back to Australia after about ten years of sailing. Suzie, on True Blue has been a wealth of information on the areas in the South Pacific and they have all been really good company.

The prison was built on an old US military base which housed a radar center to provide early warnings in protecting the Panama Canal during the second world war. All that remains of the prison is a wall made of volcanic rock stretching 100 meters long and 7 meters high. The prisoners were forced to build this wall that served little purpose other than to keep the prisoners busy. The guards were said to be extremely cruel and would literally work the prisoners to death. The wall became known as the 'wall of tears', where the strong cry and the weak die. The prison closed in 1959 after the inhumane practices became known by the international community.

On the walk back we stopped at a nice lookout point, explored a few lagoons and beautiful, white sand beaches. Seven kilometers later, we reached town once again just in time for a cold beer and lunch at Aloha Betsy.