Punta Pitt

The only place on earth where all three booby species nest in the same colony.

Punta Pitt requires a full-day boat excursion from Puerto Baquerizo Moreno — the site is at the far end of the island and the journey takes around two hours. Most tours combine it with a snorkel stop at Kicker Rock, making for a long but extremely rewarding day. The trail at Punta Pitt is steep and rocky, climbing through scrub to reach the clifftop where the boobies nest in their thousands.

The scenery at the point is spectacular — sheer red-brown cliffs above turquoise water, with the boobies wheeling in constant loops overhead. Frigate birds also patrol the colony, harassing returning boobies into dropping their catch. Sea lions haul out on the rocks below. It is the kind of place that reminds you why the Galápagos was made a World Heritage Site.

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A story
Punta Pitt sits at the northeastern tip of San Cristóbal, where the island's oldest volcanic rocks are exposed. It is the only site in the entire Galápagos archipelago — and therefore the only place in the world — where red-footed, blue-footed, and Nazca boobies all nest in the same colony simultaneously. The red-footed boobies alone are enough reason to make the trip: they are far less commonly seen than the blue-footed, and they nest in the trees rather than on the ground, giving them an entirely different character.

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