We are staying in the city of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (PBM). With a population of around 6,000 people it's the largest city on the island of San Cristobal. It's the second largest city in the Galapagos Islands (Puerto Aroyo, where we stayed on Santa Cruz is the largest). I described Puerto Aroyo as very laid back. To keep that description accurate I would have to describe PBM as laid back and on Prozac. Our kind of place!
San Cristobal is the eastern most of the 13 major islands that make up the Galapagos Islands. It has the distinction of being the first of the Galapagos Islands that Darwin visited back in 1835. Surprisingly, for as closely as Darwin is linked to the islands he actually only spent five weeks here. Most of his writings and theories came after he had left.
Me welcoming Charles to San Cristobal
Getting right into the laid back spirit of the island, we had a pretty low key day yesterday. I guess it also allowed us to put the finishing touches on our recovery from the ferry ride the day before. We did a nice walk along the waterfront in the morning. It gave us the opportunity to get the "lay of the land", which is quite easy given the small size of the city.
The highlight was an afternoon hike. We first hiked to a small but interesting Galapagos Islands interpretation center that gave a history of the islands dating back to their formation from volcanic eruptions. From there it was up to a lookout point where we saw more frigate birds (all females) and looked down on a popular snorkeling spot. There weren't too many snorkelers at the time but they were surrounded by sea lions. Additionally, a sea turtle could be seen floating along relaxing.
Tijeretas Lookout-The water below is a popular snorkeling site
We headed down from the lookout to get in a little beach time ourselves. The first stop was Playa Carola where the number of sea lions on the beach easily outnumbered the humans. The water was a little rough here so we simply hung out with the critters for a while. We were very amused by their antics, especially the young ones. They paid no attention to us even though we were sitting only around 10 feet away.
Our last stop was Playa Man where once again we humans were outnumbered by the sea lions. The water was calmer here so after a few minutes we took the plunge. The water here seems a little colder than it was on Santa Cruz but it was still tolerable. It's hard to even think about being cold when you're sharing a dip with sea lions swimming in and around you, sometimes coming within an arms length.
Dr. Doolittle talking to the animals
You want to take a picture of every one of them
Coming out of the water after a swim
Playa Man
These little guys are very difficult to photograph. By the time you point and focus they've moved to three different places
Sunset from our balcony!
I'm thinking that for as smart as Darwin appeared to be he wasn't that smart. If he was he would have spent much more than five weeks here!
