Cerro Brujo, San Cristóbal Island

The Millennium moved along the rocky shoreline to Cerro Brujo’s white coral beach. Cerro Brujo means “wizard hill”. Gandalf from Middle Earth must have been visited in times past.

Highlights ashore include the Chatham (San Cristóbal) Mockingbird and Lava Lizard: both species are endemic to this island and are not seen elsewhere in the Galapagos. These are the same shores that Charles Darwin walked on.

Today is very overcast and it is obvious in the photos for the day.

Cerro Brujo has a large sea lion colony. There was one very young sea lion pup, perhaps a week old. It was inquisitive and searched for its mother, who was out at sea feeding. He was chased away a few times by unwilling “mothers”, at least one of which was male. The Doc spent some time with it, as did much of the group.

Most of the group moved up the beach, but The Doc wanted to finally get pictures of the Yellow Warbler. He also made sure he got some “explorer” shots of the area, which are now getting lots of views on Google Earth. It is surprising how few photos of Galapagos are on Google Earth.

The Yellow Warbler made an appearance, The Doc had missed getting a decent shot of this bird on the last 3 occasions, but this time he got some shots, including one where it had caught a fly and began to eat it. These birds are very, very fast so it was a great opportunity. Being a fly catcher they do often hang around the seals, on this occasion seal lion do do. Two shots at 1/640 were blurred because these birds so fast and erratic.

The Sally Lightfoot crabs were plentiful. The Doc managed to get a group crossing from one rock to another. plus one with a couple of legs missing.

There is even a picture of a lava gull. The Doc did not realise at the time, but these are one of the rarest gulls in the world (perhaps 300 or 400 pairs). The Doc should have taken a few more photos. They were even outside The Doc’s room while at the Hotel Solymar later in the trip. The Doc has included a best picture of an ordinary lot.

The ocean was not very clear, so the The Doc went for a swim, rather than a snorkel. A big bull male and 2 females swam past. A bit disconcerting when you cannot see very well, The Doc means the bull male.

Back to the boat for lunch and short trip to Kicker Rock. On the way over we spotted a small pod of dolphins.

The ever present the Men of War (the frigate birds) patrolled the skies looking for their next victim. Here you can see them hover above a nearby boat. It gives a good example of them following a boat.

Kicker Rock (aka Leon Dormido)

Kicker Rock (Spanish name Leon Dormido) is a vertical tuff cone formation that abruptly juts up almost 150 metres out of the ocean. On the cliffs, you find blue-footed boobies, masked boobies and magnificent frigate birds.

Leon Dormido means sleeping lion in Spanish. Kicker Rock, the English name, is not as impressive, as the rocks looks like a shoe or boot. The English name is the one commonly used, the opposite is true of the island names where the Spanish name is the norm.

The Millennium sailed around Kicker Rock a large rock split in two with large white areas, caused by bird guano (technical term for do do). A few sea lions were spotted sunning on the rocks around the base.

After the trip around we suited up to snorkel through the split in the rock. The zodiacs dropped us off one side and went the long way round, as we swam through the split.

The water was deep and initial it was very hard to see. On this occasion The Doc’s poor vision had an impact. Eventually he could just make up some shark silhouettes deep below, but just. There are white tipped reef sharks, Galapagos sharks (also found at Australia’s Lord Howe Island) and hammerhead sharks. No one saw hammerheads. A turtle of two was near the surface, towards the end a few small sharks swan near the surface.

Another day was over, so we sat down for our nightly feast. The Doc is usually hungry at night as he normally had a big breakfast and a very light lunch (if any).

Not as many photos as previous days. Everyday cannot be breathtaking in these enchanted Isles.