24 Sep - Galapagos - San Cristobel Island

Monday, September 24, 2012 – San Cristobel Island

Nice breakfast, then we piled into the pangas for a tour around (and through) Cerro Brujo. This huge rock was formed volcanically and has eroded areas and other cracks that have filled with lava. We went deep into a couple of the cracks and through and arch that reminded me of Percé. Along the way we saw some juvenile pelicans, a marine iguana, thousands of Sally-Light-Foot crabs, a great blue heron, frigate birds, sea lions and a flying blue-footed booby. We couldn’t see his feet though. We had a wet landing and walked along a white beach among sea lions. We found a female in labour. Usually baby sea lions are born very quickly. This, however, was a breech birth, not going well. We watched for awhile, but the baby’s flippers stopped moving and the mother was still struggling when we left. We enjoyed some snorkeling from the beach, swimming with the sea lions some of the time. We didn’t use the wetsuits since the water was fairly warm. Then into the pangas and back to the Flamingo. We were greeted with party sandwiches, vanilla cake and juice. A half hour or so later we had a hearty lunch. No fear of experiencing hunger on this boat! The planned deep-water snorkeling was cancelled because of rough water, so we relaxed for awhile before our wet landing at Point Pitt. The climb was pretty rough, but at the top we saw red-footed boobies. We were all very grateful for the walking sticks we carried.  Heather decided it was too treacherous and turned back to sit on the beach watching the sea lions. WE met one other group on the trail, from our sister-ship Eric. We did get quite warm, but it was somewhat overcast, so at least not terribly hot. We saw marine iguanas, many birds including yellow warblers, lava lizards and lots of different plants. There was some fine mist in the air. At the summit, we had a great view and could see Nazca and red-footed boobies flying and by looking over the edge we caught sight of red-footed boobies—babies, juvenile and adult. The climb back down was, of course, even tougher than the one up. The pangas met us at the beach and we were greeted with a snack, had our briefing and dinner. A school of dolphins put on a performance for us around the boat. They leapt and frolicked, twisted and turned. Once again we turned in early.

Photos 24 Sep