Punta Pitt on San Cristóbal Island

About 2am the Millennium engines came to life as we left the Port of Baquerizo Moreno and started our 4 hour trip to the northeast tip of San Cristóbal Island. We were heading to Punta Pitt or Point Pitt in English. Pato had a very distinct way of pronouncing Punta Pitt, Pitt sounded more like Pint to English speakers.

At times the trip was a little rougher than usual, but no dramas for The Doc. He only had one ride on the porcelain bus, earlier in the trip.

Punta Pitt is a tuff formation that serves as a nesting site for many sea birds including blue-footed, Nazca and red-footed boobies, frigate birds, swallow-tailed gulls and storm petrels. It is one of the few places were you can find the 3 types of Galapagos boobies together.

Punta Pitt is part of a cinder cone volcano, which ejects volcanic ash rather than lava. You can see this in some of the close up of the rock faces. Punta Pitt raises 730 metres above sea level.

Sometimes a cinder cone is called a scoria cone, for example, on Easter Island the Moai “hats”come from red scoria.

Another boat landed her travellers around 6am. We were following our usual timetable of 7am breakfast and 8am landing. Great breakfast as usual.

A wet landing today, on a beach about 90 metres long. The sand is an olive-yellow colour, the result of the ocean’s erosion of lava rock and shells. It is mostly made up of olivine (iron magnesium silicate), giving it is greenish tinge.

The walk looks a bit intimating, but it was easier than it looked. We climbed perhaps 300 meters up to the ridge and walked from left to right across the rocks. It was a steady incline and then we moved across the ridge, at one point we saw a dozen or so black Galapagos finches feeding on the ground.

Some great views of the ridges higher up. These are the rim of the cinder cone, very clearly seen on Google Maps, here. A few of the photos that can be seen at this like, are from yours truly.

Onward we walked through some dry scrub to the red-footed boobie breeding colony. We looked down on the boobies from a ridge about 5-10 metres above. Like most things in Galapagos there are rules, rule one, do not walk off the track.

The name boobie or booby comes from the Spanish word bobo (meaning ‘stupid’, ‘fool’, or ‘clown’) because boobies, like other seabirds, are clumsy on land.

The unusual positions of the bird in the photos is part of the elaborate greeting the birds give to their mates. We mainly saw red-footed boobies and only a few other birds. It was our first encounter with the red-footed boobies. Red-footed boobies come in a grey and white morph, those in Galapagos are the grey morph. Time to head back as the next group approaches the colony.

We had some time back on the beach before we were picked up. A small number of sea lions, no babies though. The only time The Doc can remember there was no baby sea lions. The Doc took some nice shots with his point and shot of the sea lions. One female decided to chase The Doc for several metres, to the delight of the others. With a 5 metre head start The Doc was safe from this female fatal attraction 😉

A few sally lightfoot crabs on the rocks as well. Must post some shots of these crabs one day.

Time to go and we went across to a small island about half a kilometre away to snorkel. Mostly fish at this location and a few turtles. The Doc cannot recall sea lions here.

Sometimes you can see some rocks in the distance from Punta Pitt beach, this is Punta Valdizán.

All aboard, time for lunch and a trip to La Galapaguera.

La Galapaguera

We are still on San Cristóbal Island, but set out on a 5 hour walk across some dusty and dry lowlands looking for giant land tortoises. Most visitors only see tortoises in captivity or at breeding centres, we hope to see them in the wild. We came across a few on the walk, but the previous photos The Doc had seen were on lush green pastures. Nothing like that here, just lots of dust.

We even passed a large shell from a tortoise that had died many years before. Now white washed by time and the elements. Pato is seen in one photo imparting his knowledge to his eager students.

Pato did say the area would green up in the coming wet season and the females would lay eggs in due course. The males stay in the higher, greener lasher parts of the island.

The Doc thinks everyone was grateful when that walk was over. Perhaps St Christopher (after which the Island is named) was giving us a helping hand. It was a looong day.