On Day 16 of my trip to Ecuador, Sierra and I took a day trip to Playa Cerro Brujo and Kicker Rock.
Playa Cerro Brujo
Playa Cerro Brujo Is beautiful beach on the northeast side of Isla San Cristobal. after reaching the bay at Cerro Brujo, we were shuttled from our tour boat to the beach on a small dinghy. Our naturalist guide led us on a short nature walk describing various plants and animals near the beach. Then we had about an hour to explore the beach on our own. We saw blue footed boobies, frigates, brown pelicans and, of course, lots of marine iguanas and see lions. One of the baby sea lions was about 12 days old and irresistibly cute.
Kicker Rock
Kicker Rock also known as Leon Dormido (sleeping lion) is a rock formation off the northeast coast of Isla San Cristobal. It's easily visible from Cerro Brujo and Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. From one angle it resembles a boot (hence the name kicker) and from another angle it resembles a sleeping sea lion.
Kicker rock is a popular diving and snorkeling destination. And, in our tour group of 12 people, half went snorkeling and the other half, including Sierra and I, went diving.
During our two dives from different locations around Kicker Rock, we swam with many sea turtles and sharks, including Hammerheads. We saw a stingray and an eel and several sea lions that were swimming, not sleeping. But, our most unique and memorable sight at Kicker Rock was the gigantic school of fish. The individual fish weren't particularly big or pretty but the school was the size of a building.
First we swam along a wall of fish between us and the rock wall. It was hard to estimate the size of the school and I couldn't find any estimates online. But, my conservative guess would be at least 6 feet deep between us and the rock wall. At least 20 feet tall and as far in front of us as we could see. After swimming at least 30 feet along the fish wall we entered a dark cave. But it wasn't a rock cave. It was a fish cave and we cut a hole through it as we entered. We were surrounded by the school of fish and could see no daylight above us until we started swimming upward through the school. These fish weren't spread out. They were packed tightly together and moving as one unit except when we disrupted them. I forgot to ask our dive master what type of fish these are. But, looking online, they may be Salema fish.
Slideshow
Here are pictures from Day 16 of our trip to Ecuador.
Expenses
I'm doing my best to track expenses in this spreadsheet for anyone that's interested in a similar, relatively low-budget trip.
Ecuador Fun Fact
It wasn't until the 1830s that humans began to permanently inhabit the Galápagos Islands. And the most notable habitation didn't happen until the 1960s.
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