The cliffs of Punta Pitt emerge in front of our eyes as if they were a magical fortress protecting a hidden world behind its walls. The hills are natural, but their intricate shapes resemble medieval castles and recall enchanted worlds inhabited by mind-blowing beings.
Layers of ash have piled on eruption after eruption: fine material as the result of the explosive encounter of magma and the cool sea. Compacted over time it has formed tuff, which then eroded by the wind and the ocean shaped these intriguing walls that indeed house amazing creatures: sea lions, red-footed boobies, lava lizards, marine iguanas.
We are transported to a different world, lost in time, where we are immediately accepted and very well welcomed. Sea lions are the first to acknowledge our presence, and to let us continue through their domain, in peace. On bushes and trees, red-footed boobies, the only boobies with prehensile feet in the Galapagos, look down to us in approval. It’s done, we have been recognized as mere sharers of this planet, no more, and no less.
In the seas it’s the same. We jump in the deep waters around Leon Dormido’s impressive volcanic cone, and sharks and turtles show up, swim along, then leave.
Are the tuff formations truthfully protectors of this hidden world of harmony and respect? Or is it that today, here, in the Galapagos Islands, we have lost the tissue covering our eyes, and can finally see what we really are: plain sharers of a wonderful planet, and one of many in this endless universe.
