It was of course bitter sweet to be leaving the Galapagos. We had an amazing trip and the Sea Lions saw fit to give us a great send-off. Today was our last full day and tomorrow would be a morning departure from the boat and early afternoon flight back to Equador. The day called for a morning hike to Punta Pitt and an afternoon trip to the beautiful white beach on Cerro Brujo. This was another Galapagos moment - with the sea lions this time.
Out morning hike was relatively uneventful. We were only allowed to be on the beach until 10a, so it was a quick trip. Sara got the chance to do some swimming - she is getting so much better!
We spent quite a bit longer at Cerro Brujo in the afternoon - almost until sunset. We spent a while hiking up and down the beach and then a couple of sleeping sea lions woke up and gave us quite a show!
After playing on the beach for a while, the sea lions started to jump in and out of the water. That seemed like a good opporunity to go for a swim and watch them in the water. There were pelicans out and about as well - doing there thing…
I was getting a video of this pelican who had just dove and come back up, when the sea lion came up for air right in front of me! I dove down quickly just in time for him to give me a quick boop right on the camera. :)
We continued swimming for a while until the same sea lion came up to play in a shallow pool. There were already quite a few people around when I arrived, but for some reason this sea lion thought I was the most fun/tasty and singled me out. For his first trick, he came over and gave my swimsuit a quick bite…
Likely enboldended by his swimsuit trick, he came back to nibble on toes/legs. This required some remediation, so I pulled back everytime he tried came in to nibble.
This ended up happing quite a bit. He would go play with the kids or other people - Sara had a blast with getting little sea lion kisses - and then he would come back to play.
More learning…
Eventually, he did learn not to bite which made him a bit sour… Little bit indignant in fact.
Even Angela got some love this time around! She was not getting a lot of attention from the Sea Lions, so this made her day!
The Beach ended up being an amazing Galapagos moment. I think it’s just amazing how comfortable these animals are around humans without being aggressive (which happens when humans feed the animals). I continue to be impressed with what Ecuador has done through their naturalist in keeping these places wild despite the number of people that come through.
After we left the beach, the ship headed back to the port we left from for disembarkation. Our route took us past “Leon Dormido” or Kicker rock and we had some cocktails on the deck to celebrate passing the rock (and finishing up our trip).
Sara had spent an hour every day this week doing activities as part of a program called global explorers. She got a certificate and became a global explorer at the end of the week! She also got her honorary zodiac license when she learned how to drive the zodiacs (which were basically a much larger version of our dingy at home).
The following morning we disembarked relatively early and headed ashore for a trip to a plantation for early lunch before boarding the plan at 1p. The plantation was really cool and the grounds were very well kept/maintained. The kids had a blast playing for the last time before departing - until they laid on an ant pile and got a little scare…
Every day, the captain would update the map with a marker line of where we had traveled the day before. This was the final route of our trip with all of the stops that we made. Smart thing for them to do, makes it really easy to remember everything we did during the trip and when.
Other than a bout of stomach issues from almost everyone in the party (except Sara and Jim) the trip home was long and uneventful. We were all excited to be home, but have fond/happy thoughts of the amazing trip we took to the Galapagos!