San Cristobal
Home Up

 

The first thing you notice about San Cristobal is the sound of the sea lions barking. The second thing is the smell of said sea lions. This place has sea lions like cities have pigeons.

sealion steps.jpg (97093 bytes)

sealion beach.jpg (85695 bytes)

This isn't a special sea lion pool as you might think. It's the steps up from the landing stage. 

The place is heaving with them. This is the mother and toddler beach.

sealions aboard.jpg (72341 bytes)

taxi boat.jpg (83080 bytes)

They climb aboard  anything that they possibly can

15 of them climbed aboard, tipped over and sank this water taxi last week 

sealion bench.jpg (88594 bytes)

the fish isn't bad.jpg (85959 bytes)

and lie around in the main street

and apparently eat in the local restaurants
"The fish isn't bad but It's not the same as home caught"

bath time.jpg (110595 bytes)

tortoise in the woods.jpg (104543 bytes)

Bath time for 2 of the giant tortoises up at the captive breeding centre. The centre is necessary because of all the man-introduced species like rats and cats that kill the young tortoises and eat their eggs.

As an aid to digestion the tortoises eat the leaves of the poisonous Manchaneel tree. We've seen this tree all over the Caribbean but don't think anything eats it there.

male ig.jpg (92543 bytes)

CRABBY.jpg (74271 bytes)

A male marine iguana staring us out

and more crabs than you can shake a stick at

Kiddie tree.jpg (101422 bytes)

vermillion lizard.jpg (107890 bytes)

It is quite a busy little port and they are going to great lengths to pretty it up. 

Just as a change from sea lion pictures, a vermillion bellied lizard.

We went swimming with the sea lions in a small bay a short walk from the town. They weren't very interested unless we dived down but then would swim up really close to play. Erik blames the sea lions for the bug he went down with as the coughing sounded very sea lionish!

OFF TO FLOREANA