Today we visited the island of San Cristobal. We started our day with a hike at Punta Pitt, where we walked uphill along a beautiful landscape made of volcanic tuff. Here we found the last of the three species of boobies to be found in Galapagos, the red-footed booby. In the afternoon, after a delicious lunch, we visited Cerro Brujo, a beautiful beach on which to relax on the last full day of our trip. We enjoyed one last encounter with the charismatic sea lions and sea birds feeding along the shore. We ended our day navigating around Kicker Rock, a tuff cone in the middle of the ocean a few miles off the coast of San Cristobal.
- Daily Expedition Reports
- 11 Jul 2023
San Cristobal Island, 7/11/2023, National Geographic Islander II
- Aboard the National Geographic Islander II
- Galápagos
Javier Carrion, Naturalist
Javier grew up on Santa Cruz island where his grandparents first arrived in the 1940´s. Veritable pioneers, his grandparents settled in the highlands where they found a place to raise their children.
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San Cristobal Island
San Cristobal is the easternmost island of the Galapagos and one of the oldest. It has a wealth of human, geological, and genetic history, with a unique contrast among its habitats. Today we visited its most iconic sites, including Punta Pitt’s golden beach, which is made from volcanic material and is a resting site for sea lions. Its mountain is comprised of compact ash, known as tuff cones. This destination has a healthy colony of red-footed boobies, which are the least known in the archipelago, and we were surprised by the dance of blue-footed boobies and the beautiful great frigatebirds nesting near the trail. We also visited the western central coast of the island at Cerro Brujo, with one of the most beautiful beaches in the archipelago, with soft, fine white sand. Our day culminated with a beautiful sunset at Kicker Rock.