We started the morning with a wet landing to Punta Pitt, on San Cristobal. Here we had a bit of a hike up to spot the red footed booby.
These are more difficult to find than the blue footed boobies as they are they only booby that nests in trees. We were able to get a few good views of the the red-foots, and were also treated to a few courtship dances of the blue footed boobies as well.
Islas Lobos, or “Sea Lion Island”, was our next stop of the day. While containing plenty of sea lions, was the site of our search for the great and magnificent frigate birds. I’m not complimenting them, great frigate and magnificent frigate are names of the species, though they are pretty awesome. When seen from high above, they almost look like pterodactyls. However, when courting, the males of both species inflate huge red sacs below their throats, making them seem like they have giant red balloons on their chest, it’s pretty cool.
As the female flies by the males will open their wings wide, shaking them, and giving loud calls, hoping to attract her. These guys below got passed by:
The afternoon snorkelling session brought us to Kicker Rock (Spanish: Leon Dormido, which means sleeping lion).
This rather iconic rock formation off the coast of San Cristobal is a good place to spot hammerhead sharks at midday. Unfortunately the national parks service would only let us visit at 4pm. While our guide and another member of our tour did manage to see a hammerhead, we had to content ourselves with Galapagos Sharks, Eagle Rays, and Parrot Fish.
After that is was back to the boat for some well deserved rest.
