Galapagos Day 3: Pitt Point and Cerro Brujo

Overnight, we sailed from North Seymor to San Cristobal, the large, easternmost island.  Our first stop was at the north east tip, Pitt Point.  That excursion involved climbing up a steep, rocky hill.  They showed us a video of it the night before, and we could tell it would be really tough for the girls.  Add to that the fact that we were all a bit exhausted by our pace, and we decided to sit that one out.  Judy, Grace, and my dad decided to go though, so I gave them the assignment of bringing back a picture of a red footed boobie.  Judy did not disappoint.  You can see that the bill is still blue, but the feet are red.

The rest of us took it easy on deck.  Jeff and Vivian read.

Elena colored.

On the first day, the girls had gotten little gifts.  Vivian got a pillow with her name and Elena got a little backpack with blue footed boobies on it and a coloring kit inside.

Since we had the morning free, I signed us up for an onboard activity, visiting the bridge to see how the ship is sailed.  My dad and I found it very interesting.  The girls liked the view, but I don't know how much information they actually took away from it.

That afternoon we were ready to go ashore and explore Cerro Brujo.  The first part of the outing was a ride around the cliffs.

We even got to go into some of the crevices to explore and find birds.  We found a hunting pelican which was really fun to watch.

Eventually, we made our first wet landing on the beautiful, powder white sand beach.  We had brought shoes, but ended up not needing them.

The sea lions knew about this great beach too, and we spotted one playing in the waves.

The girls and Judy got into the waves too.

Water fun for everyone.

It was a beautiful stretch of beach.

Viv, Judy, and Grace got in the water to swim, but the rest of us were captivated by the blue footed boobie flying around them and hunting for fish.

Every so often it would dive dramatically underwater after fish.  We had admired the webbed feet for their color, but now we saw how they helped with swimming and getting fish for dinner.

It made us love the blue footed boobie even more.

We stayed on the beach, because there was a possibility that sea turtle eggs were buried farther up in the sand.  It was a beautiful stop though and definitely one of our favorites.

It was hard to tear the girls away from the beach, but we had a good lure in the form of an ice cream party on deck before dinner.  The mom part of my brain flinched at that a bit, but then, hey, we were on vacation.  We got the girls cleaned up and in pajamas, and then they went to enjoy their ice cream.

Dinner started with tomato soup, which Elena declared delicious.

Then it finished off with the waiters dancing with the guests.  Vivian, being Vivian, raised her hand and jumped right in.

It was a fun way to end our last night on the ship and keep us from being sad that it was almost all over.