Punta Pitt and Leon Dormido
After a comfortable navigation from Puerto Ayora, we woke up anchored at one of the most fantastic visitor sites of the Galápagos Archipelago: Punta Pitt. The best way to begin the morning exploration was to go for a hike all the way up the cliffs of Punta Pitt. After a wet landing on the beach, we prepared our gear and started hiking up the old tuff cones found in the area. The first attraction we experienced was the volcanic formations that were surrounding us like giants of nature.
As we got farther along the trail, the unique vegetation was a splendid combination of natural colors as land birds sang a symphony for us. The eroded tuff cones were nicely decorated with blue fungus as we reached the higher parts. As soon as we reached the highest point of the trail, we had a concerto of Darwin finches all over the bushes. San Cristobal lava lizards were the perfect companions for the entire hike.
Once we arrived at the cliff area, we witnessed many different kinds of seabirds taking off and flying around the rocks. The main attraction of the visit was definitely the red-footed boobies that were nesting on the bushes. Their coloration was the best contrast for a magnificent bird of paradise; it was awe-inspiring in the very beginning of the morning.
After a wonderful hike, we moved onto the next chapter of the morning activities: a Zodiac ride along the coast. During this charming activity, we sensed a combination of seabirds, nature sounds, and deep blue sea around Punta Pitt. The little Punta Pitt islet found a few meters off of the coast, was amazingly covered by hundreds of seabirds that were flying all around us. As we came back on board National Geographic Islander, we pulled anchor and started navigating to our next destiny: Leon Dormido.
In the afternoon the exploration just got better. We pulled on our wetsuits in order to go deep water snorkeling in one of the most beautiful marine paradises of the islands: Leon Dormido. As we climbed into the water we were surrounding by a vast diversity of marine life: reef fish of different colors, spotted eagle rays, Pacific green sea turtles, young Galápagos sharks, and big hammerhead sharks. At the end of the adventure we enjoyed a magnificent sunset while navigating around Leon Dormido Islet. Today we had a marvelous exploration of the Galápagos Islands’ paradise.
