San Cristobal Island, our final stop on our last expedition day, was the first island visited by Charles Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle in September, 1835. We started a hike at Punta Pitt which is an old tuff cone with impressive cliffs. The hike to the plateau and lookout point led us to a dry plateau covered with patches of red Sesuvium, or Galapagos carpet weed. We found a colony of red footed boobies nesting. These boobies are the only ones, among the 3 species found in Galapagos that nest in trees and bushes along the cliffs. Today we got to see some chicks and eggs. Red footed boobies are coming back to this place because in the last 10 years the populations have increased until there are now a few thousand of them. The other miracle that is happening here is the presence of blue footed boobies. Five year ago they were not seen here, but now it is very common to see them along the trail nesting and performing that amazing court-ship to fall in love that all our guests love to see. Once we finished our beautiful, yet uphill hike, it was time to enjoy the beach and the playful sea lions. Our guests had a blast swimming and taking pictures of them.
After lunch we sailed towards the north-west side of San Cristobal, we visited a beautiful beach known as cero Brujo which is located in front of a famous, old rocky outcrop called kicker Rock. It is the remainder of a volcanic tuff cone eroded by the wind and wave action over thousands of years. Cerro Brujo has a fine-sand coralline beach. It is as soft as flour and a colony of sea lions live there and were resting after being out in the ocean fishing for days. There were also many sea birds and red crabs on the black rocks. This place is a perfect finale to a great week exploring the islands
Once back on board, we had a nice farewell cocktail to end the magical trip. Galapagos is a unique place on this planet and our guests have a special experience here where they forget about news, problems in their jobs, noise of traffic jams and everything that goes along with populated communities. Galapagos offers them quiet, solitude, peace etc., and they will never forget this dreamlike place.
Finally we motored to our final destination, the town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, the capital of the province of Galapagos, also known as the “capital of Paradise”. After dinner, we enjoyed the slide show prepared by our photo instructor. It was made with the pictures of all our guests as a souvenir and a nice memory of all the great moments they spent here. Because we spent our time in a marvelous place where humans and nature coexist in harmony.
