March 14 2020
Early breakfast as usual, around 6:30am. We're as spoiled as ever: bowl of fresh fruit (banana, watermelon, pineapple), bread, scrambled eggs, ham and cheese. Today, we're off for a day's boat trip, to do the following 360° tour of San Cristobal island with a few snorkeling stops. We stop off at the Darwin dive center to pick up fins, masks, snorkels and wetsuits for the day.
Then it's off to the port, where our guide Claudia, a real character, is waiting with the rest of the group. Time to load the boat and off we go.
Bahia Blanca
We sail for about 1 hour to reach Bahia Blanca, a beautiful white-sand beach, where the first snorkeling spot is located. Our guide reports that the sand on this beach is about 90 % fish poop (mainly parrotfish). And without wishing to kill the myth, this is the case for all heavenly white-sand beaches.
We walk for a few minutes through the rocks to reach the small bay, where we spend about 1 hour in search of aquatic fauna. We see a wide variety of fish, 2 beautiful eagle rays that seem to fly through the water and several white-tip sharks lying at the bottom of the water, resting. The guide tells us that this is the only shark that stops to rest, the others needing to move to breathe.
Leaving Bahia Blanca, a pleasant surprise awaits us as we head for Punta Pitt. A colony of dolphins is circling the boat! We see them leaping out of the water, several at a time, sometimes as close as 10 feet from us. It's a unique sight. According to our guide, there are over 300 of them !!!!! For every dolphin that jumps to the surface, there are 20 swimming below. I feel privileged to see this spectacle of nature up close and personal. It's like being in a National Geographic film!
Punta Pitt
We arrive at Punta Pitt, a point with beautiful rocks. We're opposite our starting point, at the northeast end. This is an opportunity to observe a variety of birds. The classic blue-legged boobies, but also their red-legged cousins, which we hadn't seen before. This is also the time when the boat's deckhand goes fishing... Because yes, we're actually on a tour that includes a fishing trip. This may come as a surprise, but it's actually a requirement for this type of itinerary. Boats must register as fishing boats, and incidentally take advantage of the opportunity to give the tour to tourists. It's a bit of a scam, but why not? Unfortunately, our sailor won't be catching anything this time.
We eat our dinner on board the ship. On the menu: white rice, fresh fish and salad. An island classic. Simple, fresh, and fills a hole! Next, the option of another dive at Bahia Sardina. An hour's snorkeling was planned, but we ended up doing a little less than that, preferring the shade of the boat to avoid sunburn. The sun is very strong and, in our experience, it's best to cover up, especially at this time of day. We did see a few groups of small fish and a few large parrotfish.
Cerro Brujo
We then set sail again to discover Cerro Brujo, located on the island's north coast. We're ¾ of the way around the island. We'll only be passing around this large cliff. But we'll still stop to observe a large hole in the rock, which allows us to see all the way to Leon Dormido, our next stop.
I read that there was also a beautiful beach with boobies and a sea lion colony at Cerro Brujo, but we didn't get off the boat.
Kicker Rock / Léon Dormido
We eventually arrive at what I consider the best part of this excursion: Kicker Rock or Leon Dormido. This imposing vertical tufa cone has been split into 2 by erosion, and small boats pass between the 2 rocks. There's a lot of current and the waves are strong. We all have to be ready to jump into the water together so that the boat can then move away from the cliff. On our side, we have to swim quickly towards the rocks and pass through the corridor between the two cliffs so as not to get caught in the waves. Quite a program. But it's well worth the effort, as snorkelling here holds many surprises.
We dive into the water and quickly follow the guide with our eyes riveted underwater. This is a magical place. The aquatic vegetation on the rock faces is magnificent and full of color. We soon spot a large stingray moving away as we approach. Then we discover the object of our visit here: our first hammerhead sharks! The sea here is very deep, and you can't even see the bottom. Looking down into the abyss, we are sometimes lucky enough to see a shark rising from the depths. In fact, we're going to see several of them up close. The guide is overexcited, saying it's rare to see so many up close. We feel really lucky to be treated to such a beautiful sight.
Then a sea lion came to keep us company for several minutes near the flowery cliff. I was "grumbling" about not having seen one underwater yet. She stays and "plays" with us. She moves from one side to the other, getting close enough for us to get a good look at her.
We also saw a huge eagle ray, about 5 feet long! At first, we thought it was a manta ray, so big was it compared to the ones we'd seen before. Aquatic life overflows. Many fish are also present, although we forget about them for a while in search of larger, rarer creatures.
Once we'd finished crossing the corridor (between the 2 rock walls), we continued swimming along the cliff and were lucky enough to see 3 beautiful turtles who didn't seem frightened by our presence. Swimming in their company is truly a unique feeling. We came across a group of sharks again, which we followed from a distance. We eventually lost sight of them and it was already time to get back on the boat and head for home.
For me, this experience was out of the ordinary. Firstly, because of the situation: being out at sea, in conditions that were far from calm. Having to swim in the middle of currents and the many animals present. It was both terrifying (thanks to the Big Blue and other films showing sharks as monsters), but also so beautiful. Magnificent cliffs with so many animals living around us. It was probably the best experience of the trip for me. It only lasted 45 minutes, but time stood still. These memories will stay with us forever.
If you've only got one thing to do in San Cristobal, it's the San Cristobal 360 tour. If you're short of time, a 3-hour excursion to Kicker Rock is also possible.
Back to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno
We arrived on dry land at the town's port and thanked the guide. We'll probably come back to this in another article, but for me she was the only real, value-added guide we had of the trip. She's passionate about her work and a real clown who kept us entertained. We learned a lot from her.
We return to the hotel with many memories in our heads, and happy to have seen the hammerhead sharks, one of our objectives for the trip.
We take things easy in the evening and eat at the Casa Blanca Cafe. A rather expensive and disappointing restaurant. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't very good either, and the portions were small. We stopped off at a bakery on the way back, just to have something to eat for our long journey tomorrow (and we didn't know it was going to be worse than expected).
We spend our last night in the Galapagos (sadness).
For the rest of our adventures, follow our Galapagos Diary:
Day1
Day2
Day3
Day4
Day5
Day6
Day7
Day8
English 
French