Our time on the Islands will come to an end this evening and in order to make the finale special, we visited the Island of San Cristobal. This island is one of the first to be colonized by the government of Ecuador, and where the capital of the archipelago is located.
In the morning we visited a place known as Punta Pitt. As we woke up to have breakfast our attention was caught by a mother humpback whale with its baby, which we saw breaching right next to the ship! So we took our Zodiacs to have a closer look at these magnificent animals and, of course, took some photos. Later we landed on the beach of the visitor site and started our hike. Punta Pitt is well known for being the habitat of a particular and skittish bird, the red footed boobie. The trail led us to nesting sites of these birds and we had a good time seeing how colourful their feet are. We also found some juvenile blue footed boobies about to get ready to become independent. Later we went back to the landing site to have our very last snorkelling outing and to explore the underwater world of the Galapagos.
As the day passed, the National Geographic Islander moved to our next destination of the day, Cerro Brujo.
This place was also visited by Charles Darwin by the time the HMS Beagle circumnavigated the archipelago. We landed on this white sandy beach, home to a colony of Galapagos sea lions and some marine iguanas.
During this expedition we went from west to south and from home to the last paradise on earth. The magic of these islands forever changes the way its visitors see the outside world.