Galapagos - Day 2 - Morning trip to a Beautiful White Sandy Beach

Kicker Rock at sunrise
Day 2 in the Galapagos got off to an early start. At around 4 am, the captain lifted the anchor. When your cabin is only a few centimetre away from where the anchor is being lifted and the hard sound of the metal anchor chain being dragged into the deck was my wake up call. We were on the move to a different part for San Cristobal Island. After making my way up to the deck to get a welcome cup of coffee, I discovered that it was still pretty dark, so I settled down to watch the sun rise. We were heading for Kicker rock. First sighting of the day was a pod of dolphins swimming alongside the boat.
Friget birds
The frigate birds also seem to get a bit of lift from the moving boat and they were flying above the boat. Really beautiful to see these incredible graceful birds just floating above the boat. We sailed past Kicker Rock as the sun was rising. We reached on next destination at Cerro Brujo on San Cristobal Island and after breakfast we headed out on a boat ride to see the interesting rock formation and splendid views of Kicker Rock through the hole in rocks.

After an interesting boat ride we did our first of many wet landing. No jetty, so the dingy reveres as close as it can to the beach and we all jump off into the water. This was a pretty easy wet landed compared to some we would have later on the trip. A beautiful white sandy beach scattered with Sea Lions. The iconic Galápagos photo. There were many sea lions on the beach. Totally not concerned about the people only a few meters from them. They do not even open their eyes to keep watch on you. I have never experienced a wild animal which is so totally unperturbed by the precedence of a human. I guess that this is one points of interest in the Galápagos.
Sleeping seal - no worried about humans
Along the walk on the beach, turtles could be seen in the waves.

However, the most interesting sighting of the day was a really good look at some pretty big marine Iguanas. One of them headed off down the beach, totally not interested in the humans following him (or her - not quite sure how you tell the sex of a marine Iguana). Anyway "it" (let's be gender neutral) headed off down the beach for a swim. An amazing site. There were two very large ticks attached to the iguana. Would be really interesting to know how they do after a dip in the sea. Anyway, we did not see he or she coming out of the water, so will never know!
Swimming time.

The first blue footed booby
There was also the first confirmed sighting of a blue footed booby, one of the birds I had come to the Galápagos to see. Yes - their feet really are blue. We would have some really great sighing of this bird, but the first one is also special.
After a while it was time for the first snorkel. This was in a nice bay where there were some sea lions playing in the water. Visibility in the water was not great as about 2 meters.there was also a very strong current pulling you out of the bay. The dingies were in the water at the mouth of the bay, so I guess you would not be pulled out to sea. With the poor visibility and strong current, I would not rate this as one of my best snorkeling experiences. As a certified diver, I do not really like snorkeling too much - much prefer diving!

After the snorkeling, we headed back to the boat for lunch. After each shore excursion, there was a "welcome back aboard" cold drink ( non alcoholic) and a snack. The drink was a larger water container filled with ice and strawberries. Really refreshing after the morning on the beach. Really great. The two chefs on the boat were great and turned out delicious meals. Ecuador is a major producer of farmed prawns, so prawns were common on the menu. All of the meals had a salad table with five or six different salad items. Then there was the main course with at least 4 different dishes and dessert with two options. There was plenty of food, even through the people dug into the food. One works up an appetite on such a trip!
While we were having lunch the boat moved off to out next destination.

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