Leon Dormido Islet and Cerro Brujo, San Cristobal Island
Sea lions are the stars of Galápagos, and who doesn’t love them? They look at you with big, sweet eyes which reveal so much intelligence behind. They are as playful as we human beings, and they love siestas as much as we do. We saw sea lions sleeping inside the fishing boats in Puerto Baquerizo Bay, but the best encounters came later on in the afternoon when we landed on a white organic beach crowded with them. On one side of the beach, there is a hill called “Cerro Brujo,” which means, “bewitched hill.” This is a tuff volcano pretty similar to the one we had seen earlier in the afternoon, Leon Dormido. Both are great examples of compacted ash, eroded away by the ocean and the wind. These volcanoes form by lava cooling off with seawater, therefore producing explosive eruptions with huge amounts of ash ejected skywards, piling up and compacting later on. These tuff cones are great nesting areas for Nazca boobies and blue-footed boobies. But as I said before, the highlight of the day came later, when after landing on the beach we encountered a colony of sea lions interacting with each other and with us. There was a “beach master” barking all the time, trying to make it clear that he was the one in charge of the group of females and babies. The landscape was perfect as well, with basaltic rocks sticking here and there out of the white soft organic sand forming gigantic dunes. Sunset was spectacular, Jupiter appeared in the sky, and only then, after absorbing Galápagos beauty at its most we did come back on board, lighted by our thoughts and by the stars.
Sea lions are the stars of Galápagos, and who doesn’t love them? They look at you with big, sweet eyes which reveal so much intelligence behind. They are as playful as we human beings, and they love siestas as much as we do. We saw sea lions sleeping inside the fishing boats in Puerto Baquerizo Bay, but the best encounters came later on in the afternoon when we landed on a white organic beach crowded with them. On one side of the beach, there is a hill called “Cerro Brujo,” which means, “bewitched hill.” This is a tuff volcano pretty similar to the one we had seen earlier in the afternoon, Leon Dormido. Both are great examples of compacted ash, eroded away by the ocean and the wind. These volcanoes form by lava cooling off with seawater, therefore producing explosive eruptions with huge amounts of ash ejected skywards, piling up and compacting later on. These tuff cones are great nesting areas for Nazca boobies and blue-footed boobies. But as I said before, the highlight of the day came later, when after landing on the beach we encountered a colony of sea lions interacting with each other and with us. There was a “beach master” barking all the time, trying to make it clear that he was the one in charge of the group of females and babies. The landscape was perfect as well, with basaltic rocks sticking here and there out of the white soft organic sand forming gigantic dunes. Sunset was spectacular, Jupiter appeared in the sky, and only then, after absorbing Galápagos beauty at its most we did come back on board, lighted by our thoughts and by the stars.
