Another early start as we expected our luggage to be checked at some length. This was not as lengthy as we feared so we had a long wait at the airport. On arrival at San Cristobal, also known as Chatham, we were taken to our boat, Eric, where we had an initial briefing, safety drill and lunch.

After lunch we had a brief visit to the harbour and beach to see the sea lions, frigate birds, pelicans and the highly colourful crabs. We then went in a bus through the misty highlands to the giant tortoise breeding centre, where we saw several adult giant tortoises and also some very little ones in protected boxes. We also saw mockingbirds and warblers at the centre. Returning to the beach we saw some familiar looking waders: ruddy turnstones and semipalmated plovers. The latter seemed indistinguishable from the little ringed plovers nearer home.