January 22, 2026, Day 2 of the Cruise
Our day started with a circumnavigation around San Cristobal Island. I was up at 6 and went straight up to the observation deck to see what I could see, and I saw Frigates! All the Frigates flying around my head! They are majestic and they look like Batman. They have at least a 4-foot wingspan. They have hooked beaks which means they can’t dive for fish, so they steal fish, mostly from Boobies. They will attack the Boobies without hurting them, but it gets them to drop the fish. This first morning on the Coral 1, I was up on the observation deck while it was still dark and as the sun rose, I realized all these giant birds were following and landing on the mast of the ship. The guide explained that they think the ships are fishing boats.
Breakfast was scheduled a bit later today – 8:00am. After breakfast everyone got fitted for their snorkeling gear. Rich and I brought our own masks and snorkels as did many others, but we got fins and wetsuits and they explained where everything would be stored when we weren’t using it. They are a well oiled machine on this ship. Every time you come in from snorkeling you go straight to the second level to hang up your gear in the right spot, and then come back down for drinks and snacks. You don’t keep any of that stuff in your room because they want to keep the sand and salt to a minimum throughout the ship. They also clean the rooms twice a day! There is a morning excursion and an afternoon excursion every day, and you come back from each one to a clean cabin, with fresh towels and cleaned bathroom. It’s lovely.
Our first stop on the way to the Island was around this enormous rock formation. The super skilled zodiac drivers got us super close and even in between the rocks. The ship pictured below is our sister ship the Coral 2.
We saw our first Blue Footed Boobie on those rocks, but the pix didn’t come out very well. We had a wet landing (meaning we got out of the zodiac into the water), and did a short walk on beach.
After our walk it was time for our first snorkeling experience! The water was so incredibly clear on this whole trip. There were only a couple of times where there was decreased visibility. I LOVE SNORKELLING, and now so does Rich. I remember we were so incredibly happy with this first snorkeling experience, but in hindsight, it was NOTHING compared to what was ahead. But still, the water was beautiful and we saw zillions of little fishies.
These are the types of fish we saw over the whole trip:
After the morning snorkeling we went back to the Coral 1 for lunch, followed by general rest time. They did that pretty much everyday. We would get back to the ship for lunch around noon or 12:30, we would have lunch for an hour, and then we would have free time until about 3pm when we would meet at the Zodiacs for the afternoon excursion. They would make general announcements over the PA system giving us a 15 minute notice of what was coming next. It was so great.
So after lunch we headed to Punta Pitt, which we were told was a relatively difficult, rocky hike followed by snorkeling. So I grabbed my trekking poles, hiking boots and everything I would need for sun cover and hiking and snorkeling. I was wondering how we were all going to carry all of this stuff for the hike, but it turns out that only very small numbers of people are allowed at any beach at any given time. What that means is that everywhere we went it was almost ALWAYS just us there. So we just left all of our stuff on the beach, valuables and all, and started the hike. We saw crabs, Red Footed Boobies, Frigates, lizards, and goats. Turns out the goats are not supposed to be there. They arrived as livestock on boats and were left behind and since they have no predators. they multiplied like crazy. The guide was going to “call it in”. I suspect these goats are no more…
Once we finished the hike and got back to the beach it was snorkel time!
And, it was our new friend Kristin’s 40th birthday, so she got a surprise cake!
After dinner we had our regular 8pm briefing with drinks – Kristin introduced me to a Pisco Sour, and I think I had one every night – and we went to bed early.