After spending a whole week of exploration in the Galapagos Archipelago, we finally came to our final island, San Cristobal.  San Cristobal could not have been a better place to close an amazing expedition.  

We start our day disembarking onto a green color beach.  The color is due to the high concentration of olivine crystals, a semiprecious stone, which is found in the sand.  While olivine crystals are beautiful, they are so common on our planet, they hold no value. 

We began hiking on an interesting trail. During the rainy season, a small river of fast running water runs through this area and over a long period of time a beautiful trail has been made by Mother Nature.  This trail took us to the top of a tuff cone and then to a beautiful and colorful landscape formation.  The colors adopted by the endemic plants during the transition from dry to wet season are striking. 

The anticipated highlight of this excursion was to see red footed boobies. This area has been destroyed due to the presence of feral cats and after a restoration program carried on by the Galapagos National Park, we not only spotted red footed boobies, but also San Cristóbal mocking birds, tropic birds, frigates, and some other interesting sightings. 

We finished this intense morning outing back on the green colored beach.  This time we swam and enjoyed the most charismatic animal in Galapagos, the Galapagos sea lion. 

We also offered a Zodiac ride, for those interested in a more relaxing activity.  Everyone had the same opportunity to finish the morning on the same beach with great memories. 

For the afternoon we offered a very adventurous snorkeling activity off of Kicker rock, which is a tuff cone formation with a lot of erosion on its edges. 

After a week in the Galapagos almost everyone became an expert in the water and it was wonderful decision to finish our week of exploration on this rock with a couple of hundred friendly sharks.  To celebrate our week we sailed along the same rock in order to enjoy the view and the many different species of sea birds soaring nearby.