This was our boat—the Coral II. It was absolutely spectacular. The first island we visited, Bartolomé, was almost pure black lava. I immediately fell and scraped my knees on this, which made everyone shun me as a snorkeling partner (for fear I was shark bait). There were some dogged cacti growing there. The red rock was gorgeous, especially in the afternoon light. If you look closely, you can see that this used to be a volcanic crater. Here we are at latitude 0, longitude 90.

This was worth toasting.

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