Day 5 - San Cristobal Island

Took a panga ride along the base of the cliffs of San Cristobal Island, and through a tunnel in the cliffs. Few sea birds, but also geological aspects to the ride. Able to see a lava fissure in the cliff wall.

Back to the white sandy beach for a walk on San Cristobal Island. On there there were loads of Sally Lightfoot crabs, interesting to watching them jump from rock to rock. They did not appear to want to get their feet wet, and would rather jump over a foot to another rock. Alas failed to photograph them doing this, should have used the video.

I was more successful in getting diving pictures of sea birds fishing. Interesting to see 5 mm round balls of sand on the beach. These were from the crabs rolling up sand looking for food to eat in it. Good picture of Marine Iguanas strolling the beach leaving behind their unmistakable trail.

On the same beach we had some snorkelling, visibility not so good, but fun all the same. Back to boat for lunch, and the boat trip to the port. Here we took the bus up to the el Junca lagoon. Spotted some dragonflies, something called a saddle back. The lagoon is fresh water and is permanently full as the hole is well sealed from leaking despite being in a volcano cone. The water around the lagoon is about 1 kilometre.

From the lagoon we continued on to the tortoise breeding centre and saw several small tortoises being rared for the wild. We also found the xxxxxx xxxxxxx finch,

Back to the port, bought a T-shirt and post cards, and beers. Here you could see the sea lions basking on the gunwales of the boats. Gates were in place at the landing spots to deter sea lions who would otherwise climb steps and start to roam the streets.

Back to the boat and supper.