San Cristobal (Galapagos) – 
A fantastic breakfast awaits us as we enter the dining room of our hotel – we will need that for today, after all we will have 2 scuba dives today.
Punctually at 07:20 we are already at the dive center from where we are heading towards the harbour: A 2-hour boat trip to Kicker Rock awaits us.
We also seem to have a group of snorkelers on board – let’s see how the crew handles snorkelers and divers at the same time… In general, combining both is not that good as one one of the two groups will not have the best experience (divers find snorkeling areas rather lame and snorkelers tend to see far too little at diving areas). At one of the bays on San Cristobal we make a short stop. Here we jump fully equipped into the water and do a buoyancy check while some snorkelers use the break to do a quick swim.
Then we head over to Kicker Rock, which you can already see from this place. Some masked boobies and sea lions greet us as we anchor in front of the cliffs. The rocks look more impressive from down here than from far away – in every little hole even boobies seem to be nesting…
We jump into the water and dive down the rock face – our plan is to wait for sharks in the area of the rock protected from the current. On the way we spot some eagle rays and a big swarm of doctor fish.
Following the steep rock wall we have a look around but seem to have no luck with the exception spotting of two whitetip sharks.
During the second dive it also doesn’t look like we are going to see some bigger fish – I truly wonder why we don’t dive through the gap in between – there should usually be a lot of sharks there…
As we slowly head back towards San Cristobal, we have lunch on the boat – my stomach is already growling. The next stop is a small bay on the east side of the island where we have a break to go swimming and snorkeling. The spot is actually not bad – here you can see a lot of curious sea lions, which enjoy swimming around and poke you with their nose.
Back at the port again, we decide to visit the Centro de Interpretation. Although there is a lot of evolution theory explained by the presentation items, everything is quite straightforward and partly even explained in a playful and child-friendly way. Not at all a “boring museum” .
Following the footpath from the center, we walk to the beach of Punta Carola – there are supposed to be many sea lions here during the day, but apparently they are more likely staying at Shipwreck Bay in the evening. We relax a little, watch the sunset, and slowly make our way back towards the city, where we have dinner in the restaurant “Bambus” and sip some cocktails – it was a “exhausting” day .
