Galapagos, Part III
San Cristobal and Santa Cruz Islands
April 16, 2024
We awoke at San Cristobal Island, the first island that Charles Darwin visited. The island is home to 8,000 inhabitants and is the political capital of the Ecuadorian province of Galapagos.
We were anchored at Punta Pitt, the only site in the Galapagos where all three species of Boobies nest. We skipped the very difficult hike (according to other reports, this was the right call) and instead took a morning Zodiac ride from which saw red footed Boobies for the first time on this trip. We also saw many male frigate birds with their inflated red chest pouches along with many other sea birds and a lone peregrine falcon.
Frigate birds above and red footed booby below. Below that is the cove at San Cristobal.
After returning to the ship and shortly after breakfast, we went back to the Punta Pitt beach, where we snorkeled; unfortunately, the underwater visibility was not good, so we cut the swimming short. We went back to the beach and relaxed near friendly sea lions.
A sea lion at Punta Pitt beach, left, and returning to the ship, right. Below is a vide of snorkeling that was taken by one of the naturalists, and it shows things seen on the the various snorkeling expeditions.
After returning to the ship, the period before lunch was dedicated to photo and video exchanges with staff and disembarkation guidance. This period was interrupted by several hundred bottlenose dolphins surrounding the ship; they entertained us with acrobatic leaps and closeness to the ship over about 20 minutes. This was a big surprise, because they are not encountered often in the Galapagos.
Our last lunch on this cruise featured wonderful Ecuadorian food. We spent some time in the afternoon starting to pack up for returning home. After an hour we went to the beach on San Cristóbal at Cerro Brujo. This is another beautiful beach with aquamarine water, white sand and black volcanic rocks. There were a few sea lions lolling about there. We elected not to swim from the beach because we didn’t want wet bathing suits, but many of our fellow passengers enjoyed the water.
Above is the approach to the Cerro Brujo beach. Below are two views from the beach. The last one shows Kicker Rock in the background, where we will end the day.
After returning to the ship, there was an outdoor cocktail party while we circumnavigated Kicker Rock (León Dormido) while watching the sunset. Passengers then went to the indoor lounge, where we were presented with the slide show made from passenger–submitted photos before our last dinner on the ship. Here are some views of the attractive Kicker Rock.
April 17, 2024
We disembarked from the ship with our luggage before 6:30 a.m. A Zodiac took us to a dock on Santa Cruz, where we boarded a bus for a ride into the highlands of the Island. The landscape was lusher than the other islands we had visited, with green trees and bushes. It was first time on our trip that we saw signs of human inhabitants. After a drive of about a half hour up the mountain to about 1,800 feet in elevation, we reached the Giant Tortoise Reserve associated with the Charles Darwin Research Station). We learned many interesting facts about these incredible creatures. They are a rare keystone species that is not a top predator, and they can live well over 100 years. They were hunted extensively for meat until the late 20th century, when their population declined from 250,000 to 15,000. The population has recovered somewhat, and through protection is hoped to increase since they have no predators (other than humans), do not suffer many diseases, and are being actively bred.
We were served breakfast at the reserve and then donned rubber Wellington boots to walk around in the tortoise habitat. We saw several individuals weighing more than 500 pounds walking around. This was a fantastic cap to our time in the Galapagos Islands! Here are some photos.
The bus then took us back down the mountain to the dock, where we boarded a small transit boat that took us across to Baltra Island, where we boarded another bus that took us to the airport. We flew back to Guayaquil and to the same hotel we had stayed in last week.
April 18, 2024
Today was not a fun day. We rose at 2:45 a.m. for our early flight from Guayaquil to Miami airport, where we had a connection of 6 hours. The Miami airport left a lot to be desired. The distances are very long and the layout somewhat odd, plus many of the few moving sidewalks and people mover trains they have were out of service. Eventually we left MIA about a half-hour late (we were told due to construction in SFO), arriving back at our home airport well after 9 p.m. Pacific Time. We arrived home about 22.5 hours after we got up in the morning. A very long day, but that didn’t dampen our enjoyment of a remarkable trip.
The above map shows our routing from the Islands, to mainland Ecuador where we spend a very short night, and then our homebound flight via MIA. The distance from Guayaquil (GYE) to SFO via Miami was 4,507 miles.
The Galapagos Islands are incredible, unlike anything else we have ever seen. It is a truly wild place. The trip was active and we saw more species than we had expected. It takes some effort to get there, but for anyone interested in wildlife, it is a must-see destination. Here’s one final photo.
