Galapagos Day 10

Now that I’ve been away from home for just under two weeks, things have got to the stage where some laundry has been required.  Fortunately the boat has a section on the top deck with lines where one can peg out one’s laundry.  Being at sea there is always quite a breeze and for some reason the design of the top deck funnels the air into the area with the drying clothes. For that reason one is always slight surprised, and very grateful when one returns several hours later and finds the (now dry) clothing still flapping away on the line.

At 8am this morning we had a wet landing on San Cristobal Island at Cerro Brujo.  We started with a one hour panga trip along the cliff face looking for wildlife species but along the way we came to a section called The Cathedral, and I have blipped my iPhone shot which includes the other panga for scale. At 9am we had landed on the beach and explored the lagoon and beach and most of today’s shots come from this part of the day.  As extras I've given you the Chatham Mockingbird (a species that is specific to this part of the Galapagos), a Medium Ground Finch with a seed, and a Magellenic Oystercatcher with catch.

In the afternoon we had travelled to, and moored in San Cristobal itself, having circumnavigated the famous Kicker Rock (not pictured) on the way.  From here we headed into the uplands where, at El Junco there is a lagoon in the crater of an extinct volcano.  The lagoon is full of fresh water and the frigate birds mentioned in my blip of last Tuesday come here to wash the salt off their wings. I have told you how, the Magnificent Frigate Birds have no oil in their feathers to waterproof them. As a result salt is a problem (oil would otherwise protect their feathers from) and they come down to the fresh water sources to wash off the salt.  The have to do this quite carefully, as they will be unable to fly if their wings get too wet, and they will drown.  Again I’ve not included a photo of this process as there was low cloud at the lagoon and the shots in the mist are not great.

Back down with an hour to kill before our panga came to collect us, a number of us headed for a nice sea front bar for a cold beer and a chat, a very welcome and convivial way to end our day, watching the sun set before the trip back to the Beluga for dinner.

Tomorrow we are heading for Española Island - fingers crossed but we may see some albatrosses.  Most of the Galapagos albatrosses will have left by now, but there’s a chance that we might see one or two.