San Cristobal Island
We disembarked today on the second oldest island of the Galapagos, where pirates and whales made some quick stops to collect Giant tortoises and fresh water for their long navigations. We had a dry landing on Pitt Point, where the geology had formed amazing peaks of tuff being colonized by the endemic scalesia plants and many other species that inhabit this area. The Galapagos National Park service had controlled the population of introduced species like cats and rats in this visitor site. Ever since, the population of red footed boobies had increased along the cliffs and their nesting area is expanding as the area seems safe for them to repopulate again. The endemic Chatam Mocking bird was seen along the trail. As we headed down off the cliffs we enjoyed swimming at the beach with some sea lions around the area sleeping on the golden sand.
For the afternoon we navigated towards “Kicker Rock” (a volcanic and tuff cone in the middle of the ocean) and got ready for snorkeling. This was a deep water snorkeling outing where some of us were lucky to see some white tip reef and Galapagos sharks. Some sea turtles were also seen feeding on the sea jellies. This was our last snorkeling of the week, but it sure was worth the wait.
Once back on the National Geographic Islander, we navigated around Kicker Rock to see the sunset and some birds nesting on the volcanic cone.
The whole week was a true experience of human and nature interacting together and after this expedition we shall go to our homes and start seeing the world with different eyes.
