This morning I caught my first glimpse of San Cristobal Island as I walked into the sunrise lit library aboard the National Geographic Endeavour. The flat light just after sunrise painted dark voids in between the golden looking expanses of the highly eroded volcanic ash cone that reigns over the area at Pitt's Point.
The red-footed boobies we came here to see didn't make us wait, as juveniles curiously flew almost within reach above our heads as we rode our zodiacs towards shore. Once we had landed on the olivine "green" sand beach, we all hastened to put on our shoes after the wet landing so as to not miss the opportunity to photograph the Galapagos sea lions that basked in the early morning sun. Even though our explorers have been with us for almost a week, some seem to momentarily forget that the last thing in the sea lion’s mind is to run away. The absence of large land based predators, that in other places around the world make individuals who literally "keep looking over their shoulders" more likely to survive, makes for a remarkably relaxed interaction between humans and the wildlife of the Galapagos.
Pitt's Point, named after the same English gentleman whose name inspired Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, is the most eastern point in the Galapagos archipelago. The trail around this weathered “tuff cone” offered us encounters with the endemic San Cristobal mockingbird and lava lizard, together with the very characteristic plant life of the arid zone which serves as nesting grounds for the red-footed boobies. We had the opportunity to see several of their nests with individuals incubating eggs, and one with a recently hatched chick.
During the afternoon, we repositioned to Kicker Rock, where we would conduct our activities for the rest of the day.
As the sun sets over the open stretch of water that separates San Cristobal from the rest of the archipelago to the West, I think of how even though we have been very lucky with our snorkeling excursions during this week, I'm sure that everybody who went snorkeling around Kicker Rock today had a chance to see something that they hadn't had a chance of experiencing before, as green sea turtles, black tip reef sharks and Galapagos sharks together with large shoals of fish where abundant today.
