Today was our last full day in Galapagos and we spent our day at two very famous visitor sites on the same Island, and with different activities in the morning and in the afternoon.
In the morning we had a Zodiac ride right before disembarking on a green color sandy beach. During our Zodiac ride we had the opportunity to see lots of sea birds on a rock just off the coast of San Cristobal Island. This activity was just preparation for our hike over a compacted volcanic ash trail. These parasitic cones are known as tuff cones.
These volcanic features are always formed along the coast line of the main volcanos. We were interested in getting to a cliff formation where red footed boobies nest. And our activity was just perfect. The temperature was right and the presence of nesting red footed boobies was plentiful, as we predicted.
We finished our morning activity on the same landing beach and this time we had the opportunity to swim, photograph Galapagos sea lions, take a relaxing walk on the beach and snorkel off the beach.
To continue with our adventure we sailed a couple of hours toward Kicker rock, which is another parasitic tuff cone. This rock got its name due to the shape, after extensive erosion in its surroundings. This snorkeling site is also one of the best to observe Galapagos sharks and Pacific green sea turtles at the same time. There they were, waiting for our dear explorers. This site is also a good place to observe different kinds of invertebrates such as sea stars, sea urchins, sea sponges and different patches of coral along its walls.
We closed our week of exploration onboard the National Geographic Islander with a boat ride along the same rock formation. It could not have been better because we saw many species of sea birds soaring in the sky and also another spectacular sunset in Galapagos.
