Today is our last day in the enchanted islands. After travelling from the western most to the eastern most islands of the Galapagos, we truly enjoyed an outstanding expedition. Our destination for today, San Cristobal Island, is the second oldest of the Galapagos. We opted for a fun Zodiac ride, searching for red-footed boobies on the cliffs, and soon after, we landed on a green olivine beach, mixed with volcanic ash.
The hike offered a breathtaking view of the blue bay in the distance, and some interesting endemic vegetation along the trail. We walked up and down along an old river bed, inhabited by endemic San Cristobal lava lizards as well as endemic centipedes and large painted locusts. Once we reached the end of the hike, our reward was a group of red-footed boobies nesting right in front of us, some flying in search of nesting materials, and others incubating their eggs.
Later we repositioned to Cerro Brujo, an impressive white sandy beach surrounded with turquoise water. We disembarked for a snorkel outing along the coast of the tuff formation, in search of fish and sea lions. Life is plentiful underwater in the Galapagos, and we managed to see some spotted eagle rays, tiger snake eels, schools of razor surgeon fish and some playful sea lions. We finished our day with some relaxing beach time, with our young explorers playing in the waves and the sun heading down in the far distance.
What an incredible week aboard the National Geographic Endeavour, exploring the enchanted islands.
