The place was really busy and mainly full of Israelis being their usual loud and uncompromising selves. Christina sprang into action and Hualdo told us to head off up the hill and come back down for breakfast in around an hour. The island was an incredible place, a hilly tree and cactus filled island. Although touristy it was all done very well, there was a small café and some environmental toilets, then lots of different paths for us to go off and explore. The best thing was that we had loads of time here, a good couple of hours which was great.

We headed off up the hill and were just stunned by the view, although flat and very white there was something really magical about it. The trees and cacti looked stunning silhouetted against the white and on closer inspection the ground and some of the rocks looked a little strange. In fact they looked very familiar but it took a couple of minutes to

register and for us to realise what it was. It looked so strange and familiar because it was the remains of coral. Of course this place used to be a sea, hence all the salt and coral - doh!!! Wow! To think that we were standing at around 3600 metres above sea level and were actually stood on top of a dried up sea bed. Who would have ever thought you could get seas that high!

Rob has just informed me that it wasn’t that high when it was a sea! Apparently the sea was at a much lower altitude before the ground got pushed up by the force of the Pacific and South American tectonic plates crashing together and shifting the Andean plateau to a higher altitude altogether! Wow! And all of this before humans came along to wreck Mother Natures progress! Learning about history and how the earth was formed has been some of the most interesting aspects to our travels and to stand here on that island and