March 22, 2025

Robinson Cruse Island was a great place. Kim went hiking in the morning and then after lunch we both went back to check out the small village. In the afternoon we attended a Pirate Party where we were fed Lobster, Octopus, Crab empanada, and fried fish. We washed it down with Pisco Sours, a Chilian drink that is extremely good, limey and refreshing.

So, Robinson Crusoe was really Alexander Selkirk. He had the captain of the ship he was on drop him off there expecting to spend a few days and get picked by the ship again. Well, the ship wrecked and Alexander spent over 4 years there until another ship happened along. I guess hitch hiking wasn’t the best plan in those days. Early on, other ships had brought goats to these 3 Islands so that sailors passing through would always have fresh meat. We actually saw some goats up in the hills from our ship as we were, so this idea for fresh meat is still working.

Endemic to these Islands are the bright red Humming bird and the San Fernandez fir seal. We saw lots of both.
The locals catch Lobster and ship them to the mainland (Chile). On Selkirk Island we saw men in fishing boats catching “bait” for the Lobster traps. The bait looked good enough to eat.

As we left Kim and I saw a Whale, only briefly, so no pictures. After talking to the Marine Expedition Leader, I am convinced that it was a very rare Beak Whale.

Speaking of hitchhikers, we found this Petrol hanging out on deck 9

This is a good map of the beginning part of our trip. I would say over half of the passengers will leave us in Papeete.

Well, I’ll leave you with these two pictures taken a few seconds apart, showing how much the ship was rolling. Notice that the rail is in the mountains in the first picture and in the Ocean on the second one.