Day 408 – San Cristobal
360 Tour
We had signed up for a 360 Tour with Eco Challenger Tour Agency. The agency was more expensive than most other places at $140 USD ($212.31 AUD) per person (p/p). However, we really liked the owners enthusiasm and what he told us about the tour. Other tour agencies were around the range of $110 ($166.81 AUD) to $120 ($181.98 AUD) p/p.
We arrived at the agency at 7am. Our equipment was provided to us along with some coffee. The equipment came in a mesh bag, which was perfect to dry the equipment. There were a total of 9 tourists going on the tour with us. Just before 7.30am, we walked to the pier and got into a taxi boat. It was actually the same driver, who originally bought us to San Cristobal on Day 406.
The taxi boat took us to the awaiting boat called Hammerhead. As promised, it was spacious and looked new. After a brief introduction from our tour guide, we started the journey to our first point of interest.
The seas were super rough along the way. Luckily the boat had large windows that we could actually see out off. That being said I decided to just shut my eyes and sleep.
Rosa Blanca Bay
Our first destination was Rosa Blanca Bay. The boats are not able to dock, so we had to prepare for wet landing. However, we were lucky, as the boat was able to come really close to the beach so we could just step onto it.
The guide explained that the beach was from organic sand, so it would not retain any heat. It’s apparently made from dead coral.
Then we went to a spot, where we would clean the beach. We picked up some plastic that was on the beach. There was a surprising amount of rubbish out here. 🙁
Then we walked to a small bay, where we would go snorkelling. Once we got into the cold water, we instantly saw a sea turtle. As we were snorkelling around, we saw a white tip shark swimming away from us. We also saw an eagle ray and plenty of fish. Everyone else went anti clockwise directly to a known shark hotspot. We swam clockwise around the bay to avoid the crowd. We saw several sea turtles and then a massive one with a GPS tracker on its shell.
As we were swimming, our guide called us over with excitement in this voice. We followed him and…ohhh snap. We swam a few metres over what looked like hundreds of 2-3 metre long white tip sharks. It was scary and amazing at the same time.
After some time we went back to the shore. The others in the group had seen a few more types of rays. As we were sitting on the shore, we saw a red crab shedding its shell. The guide explained that the majority of the sharks are typically in a smaller bay and we were really lucky that they all came out. This time, it was a wet boarding onto the boat. However, we were greeted with pears and sweet bread.
Punta Pitt
We had to tackle more rough seas as we rode towards Punta Pitt, which is a large rock that has both red and blue footed boobies. Unfortunately we didn’t see any red footed boobies. However, we saw several other species including blue footed boobies. Viewing was only from the boat.
There was meant to be some optional fishing. We never stopped for this, which I assume is because the seas were too rough.
Sardine Bay
We had a nice lunch at Sardine Bay on the boat. The water was relatively calm at the bay, so it was easy to eat. Then we landed on the shore. We were given information near some old turtle shells. Then we saw some sea lions on the white sands of the beach. The guide estimated that there was a 3 day old baby. It was adorable.
There was optional snorkelling here. But we opted to just chill on the warm white sands at the beach.
Kicker Rock
Then we continued back on the boat towards Kicker Rock. We stopped to see some rock formations. One of them was called the Witches Face and the other was known as the Cathedral. They were formed by volcanic ash that compacted over the years.
Kicker rock is actually called Leon Dormido (Sleeping Lion). We arrived close by to the rock and got back into the water. The main reason was to see hammerhead sharks.
We didn’t see any, but we saw a small shark from a distance. And plenty of fish and sea turtles. As we were swimming along a sea lion started swimming around us, which was really cool. There was also a massive school of fish. The guide swam through the school, which was super cool. I wish I could dive like that. As we were swimming back to the boat, a few sea lions were surrounding the school of fish.
Back on the boat, the guide told us that the water was too cold for hammerhead sharks.
Puerto Baquerizo Moreno
We then got changed on the boat and headed back into town. In town, we walked back to the Eco Challenger office. We were given tea and allowed to connect to the wi-fi. Then the guide started transferring photos to us individually, which took time but was really nice.
Afterwards we went back to our airbnb and got freshened up before we went out for dinner.
We were going to have dinner with a Singaporean couple who were travelling with a 6 and 2 year old boys. They were super impressive, as we thought that kids meant the end of long term travelling. We picked their brains as we had dinner and then cakes.
Amazing cakes at a bicycle cake store
