We visited four of the southeastern islands – San Cristobal, Espanola, Floreana, and Santa Cruz. When we re planning our trip, no two traveler reviews could agree on which islands were “the best”…and we found that each of the islands we visited had its own unique landscape, complement of animals to see, and land and sea activities to choose from. Given that, I decided not to narrate a blow-by-blow of our days on the islands…rather just share the highlights and wonders we saw along the way.
The first really breathtaking view we had was waking up the first morning on the boat and seeing Kicker Rock on the way to exploring San Cristobal island. It’s called that because from one perspective it does look a lot like a high top sports shoe! We passed by it just after sunrise which made the lighting all the more dramatic.
We explored one part of the coastline in pangas, and along the way we got to cruise through some incredible natural caves with all sorts of crawlers – black and red crabs – along with hearty barnacles and a dramatic view of the geological evolution of the islands in the striations in the cave walls.
Our first “wet landing” plopped us on a beach to walk among sea lions lazing in the sun. We saw babies nursing, sleepy elders splayed across rocks, and then came across land iguanas trying to be inconspicuous among the trees.
As we hiked inland we got what for me was a thrilling highlight of the trip – close encounters with the boobies! Ok, get the jokes out of the way now 🙂 because we made them all. In reality, this was so cool. We came across lots of blue-footed boobies and even got to watch their famous courtship dance…sort of…
We hiked through the rocky terrain and saw how exquisitely the pairs of these lovebirds build their nest surrounded by a perfect circle of guano (yes, poop), laid eggs in the exact middle, and then take turns sitting on and protecting the eggs – trading off foraging for food.
We did catch site of some red-footed boobies, but since they nest and hang out in trees it was more of a challenge to document their machinations. Nonetheless, we did not come away from San Cristobal with any lack of boobies!!!
Our next stop was the island of Espanola. Each island has its own unique terrain, indigenous flora and fauna, and memorable moments for me. On San Cristobal it was the boobies – on this island it was iguanas, hawks, (another type of boobie – Nezca boobies), and a really gorgeous coastline crowned with a fun blowhole reminiscent of ones we’d seen in Hawaii. When we disembarked onto a dry dock, we were greeted…well, surrounded by Christmas iguanas. I was part awestruck, part paralyzed temporarily as these guys are not small!
A group of us had quite an amazing front row seat to witness “territorial imperative” when two of these colorful guys got into a real tussle – we nearly lost our guide while mesmerized as spectators.
As we walked on along the rocky coast we came across a hawk that is not often seen close up – quite a majestic bird indeed.
Stay tuned for my next installment – coming soon!
Living La Vida Loca 