The morning excursion involved a wet landing on a very picturesque beach, followed by modest hike up a ravine. It was one of those landing where we go in without shoes, try to dry off our feet and wipe the sand from between our toes, then put on socks & shoes or, if you’re like me, your hiking sandals.
There was very little wildlife this day, in sharp contrast to day 9. We landed where the arrow is pointed at the island of Punta Pitt, then followed the winding path up to a cliff with a nice view. The path and the island was bone dry, with little vegetation. A very stark difference from the western side of the islands where we had been just a few days earlier.
Once we reached ‘summit’ – an exposed ridgeline – we had a nice view of the Pacific, and of the sun trying its hardest to break through.
At the tip of the point there was some beautiful red ground cover, and some nice green contrast in the foreground, but unfortunately it was cloudy for most of the time we were sitting there. There was a young booby and parent off in the distance, and quite literally no other wildlife, so we focused on trying to get pictures of them with the nice red contrast. Here’s how the scene set up
You can see the booby pair in the distance. They’re those white specks upper center. Tui is just hanging out on the left, waiting for the sun to peak out. It was very overcast, so we knew that any sun that appeared would be fleeting.
In the meantime, we watched the juvenile booby practice flying, flapping wings up and down, hopping a few inches off the ground. Nothing stupendous, and without the sun the red doesn’t pop, but fun to watch.
We saw a patch of sunlight appear on the water, and move very slowly towards us as the clouds drifted. Sunlight is coming! Everyone pick their shot! According to my timestamps, the sun came out for precisely 3 minutes and 30 seconds. LOL. I decided I wanted to get a wide angle shot with the red ground cover in the foreground, because by this point the booby pair had moved to a less photogenic spot. I knew I didn’t have much time so I simply shot at as many different angles as I could. I like the first 2 the best – the angle is too high on the third, but it’s not bad. Compare the colors in these sunlit photos with the colors above – big difference. That’s the thing about the Galapagos – sometimes you see animals, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes the sun is out, sometimes it isn’t. You just have to roll with whatever nature serves up.
We eventually moved up to a little loop where we found a parent and 2 juvenile frigate birds. The older sibling was a turd – even more than frigates usually are – pecking the younger one mercilessly. When resources are scarce, even family can turn on each other. Tough to watch, actually, although the little one seemed to be okay in the end.
I snapped a few additional shots, but there wasn’t much else on this barren rock of an island.
At the end of our hike, before we boarded the pangas, we sat on the beach for a while, and I took a few pictures with my iPhone. Very neat geology, a couple of sea lions. Then the sun finally came out and I ran and hid under what little shade existed.
And that was our excursion. Not terribly exciting, especially compared to Day 9. Did I mention how amazing Day 9 was?
Back on board, we squeezed ourselves into our wetsuits yet again and headed out for the snorkel. We were told this was a rough one, with very strong currents, and they were right. We ended up being the only 2 passengers that went out. We snorkeled around a tiny rock outcropping, I believe the one labeled ‘rock islet’ in the map. It was roughly circular, maybe 100 feet across, and rose up from the ocean floor. As the current came in it crashed into the rocks and reef – and us. The waves were crashing over us constantly, and more than once I went to breathe in and my snorkel said “Nope – I’m underwater”. Which isn’t a great feeling, but better than sucking in a gallon of seawater.
You can get a feel for how rough the water was by watching the short video below (I’ve stabilized some of it so you don’t get seasick watching it). The fish weren’t that interesting, but the booby’s took an interest in us. If you go to the end of the video you’ll see that they wanted to come home with us.
The beach at Cerro Brujo and the circumnavigation around kicker rock were pleasant, but I didn’t take any pictures. A bit of a slow day. But even a slow day on the Galapagos is pretty nice.
