San Cristobal Island


Friday, February 22
San Cristobal Island

Overnight we sailed to the easternmost island in the archipelago, San Cristobal, and after breakfast all but Joyce and Victor took a rigorous hike up a dry stream bed to a plateau in the center of the island.  We took a Zodiac along the shore to see the Red-footed Booby, a bird we had not seen yet.




We met on the ship for lunch during which we sailed to Cerro Brujo, a part of San Critobal which has a spectacular beach of white organic sand (that is, sand derived from marine animal shell breakdown rather than from rock).  Prior to this trip I had, somehow, never considered that there is a difference between an organic and a non-organic beach!

At the beach we had a fine time swimming, snorkeling and enjoying the abundant sea lions who mostly ignored us, and sometimes were a bit playful with us.







This was a lovely day and way to end this spectacular trip.  Back on the ship for dinner, the crew completed the large map of our travels: 



We are so pleased that most of the family was able to join us for this celebration.  We missed Leah and toasted her many times.  Tomorrow we fly to Guayaquil and Sunday, home.  Yet now, as the T-shirts said, the adventures continue.    

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Anticipation

Image
Thursday, February 14, 2019 In June, we will celebrate our 55th wedding anniversary.   Five years ago, for our 50th, we had a wonderful safari in Kenya: For more than a year we have been planning this celebratory week on a National Geographic trip to the Galapagos Islands with the whole family, and we will leave tomorrow.  Sadly, Leah will not be able to join us due to auditions for college for next year. We fly Rochester-Philadelphia-Miami-Guayaquil, Ecuador tomorrow, and then on Saturday morning, to the Galapagos Islands which are 600 miles off of the west coast of South America.   We will board the Lindblad  Endeavor II, a small ship which holds 96 passengers: We'll be on the ship for a week, hiking multiple islands, snorkeling, sea kayaking, and having lectures from the National Geographic naturalists. Although there will be internet access, it's not clear whether the bandwith will be sufficient to upload photographs, so further...
Read more

Urbina Bay and Tagus Cove, Isabela Island

Image
Tuesday, February 19 Urbina Bay and Tagus Cove, Isabela Island Isabela Island is by far the largest island in the archipelago, making up more than half the land mass.   It was formed by the fusion of six “shield volcanoes” and is shaped like a seahorse.   After breakfast, at 8:00 AM, we disembarked for a hike at Urbina Bay.   We set off after changing into our hiking shoes, as it was a “wet landing” which means we exited the Zodiacs in about two feet of water. The major population of Galapagos Tortoises is on other islands, but we hoped to see some here.   Right on the trail was a collection of poop and we had a briefing on the identification of critters from finding their poop.   Yes, this collection included that of the tortoise. The land iguanas are all over the place; here’s today’s portrait: The prominent flowering tree here is the Muyuyo, which has bright yellow flowers: And we indeed found tortoises: Back...
Read more

Santiago Island and Sea Turtles

Image
Wednesday, February 20, 2019 Santiago Island Today we began with a 6:00 AM pre-breakfast one-mile hike to Playa Espumilla on Santiago Island, a prime spot for sea turtle nesting.   It was truly amazing. On the beach were Galapagos Oystercatchers:   And mockingbirds: But the major attraction was the female sea turtles. We came upon this one working her way to the sea, oh so slowly.   She’d take a couple of sand swim strokes and then stop and rest. Our naturalist said she’d be truly exhausted from her night of dragging herself up to the mangrove shelter above the high tide mark, digging a hole, laying the eggs, covering the hole and then dragging herself back to the edge of the surf. We came upon this nest, built too close to the high-water mark: And then we spotted this one, covering her nest.   We followed her progress all the way down the beach, a process which took about 30 minutes.   Here’s the abbreviate...
Read more