Day 11: Pitt Point and Cerro Brujo
In the morning we had an excursion to Pitt Point, where there was a small beach, with an opportunity for swimming and snorkeling. The sea lions were very friendly and swam among us and posed for pictures.
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Violating the 6-foot rule
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| Joining us for a swim |
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| Crabs on the rocks. They were about 4 inches across |
My attempt at snorkeling was a semi-success. The snorkeling itself was fine, but my attempt to use my phone camera in a waterproof pouch was not as successful.
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| A fuzzy closeup of a sea lion |
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| Lots of small fish, but they wouldn't stay still |
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| Proof that I was there |
After my snorkeling attempt, I wandered around the beach, photographing the wildlife
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| More sea lions |
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| Another variety of wildlife |
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| Yet another crab |
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| A sea lion convention |
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| Tracks of some sort.... |
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| Our ship in the distance |
Eventually we returned to the ship for lunch.
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| The ship's bar |
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| Hanging out at the pool |
In the afternoon, we had an excursion to Cerro Brujo (Sorcerer's Hill), on San Cristobal Island. We started with a zodiac trip on the coast.
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| Kicker Rock (in the distance) |
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| Some pelicans on the cliffs |
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| Another view of the cliffs |
Eventually we made a landing on the beach on Cerro Brujo, and enjoyed some close up action with some sea lions.
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| Lava from a recent eruption |
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| More crabs |
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| A blonde sea lion? |
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| Close-up of a crab |
A bunch of storm clouds gathered over the island, but it never did rain.
After lying on the beach for a while, I tried snorkeling again, and had a little more success using the camera phone.
Back onshore, I visited a crab colony.
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| A close-up view of Kicker Rock |
Eventually, we returned to the ship for some birdwatching and sunset.
We repeatedly were dive-bombed by various sea birds.
Finally, a pod of dolphins came by to entertain us.
Day 12: Tortoises and back to Quito
Our last half day in Galapagos consisted of a visit to the La Galapaguera Tortoise Sanctuary, and some leisure time in the main town on San Cristobal Island, appropriately named San Cristobal. Although some of the islands that we didn't visit have tortoises in the wild. these are the only tortoises on San Cristobal.
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| Most of the tortoises had numbers painted on them |
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| Proof that we were there |
After visiting the tortoise sanctuary, we returned to the town of San Cristobal (population about 5,000)/
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| Along the waterfront |
Next we were taken to the airport, where we flew to Quito, with a stop in Guayaquil. The farmland around Guayaquil was completely flooded, but I didn't see anything about floods in the local news.
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| Central Guayaquil from the air. |
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| Rainbow over Quito |
