San Cristobal, also known as Chatham, is the easternmost island in the Galapagos. It is the site of the only permanent stream in the archipelago and is also where Darwin first went ashore in 1835.
San Cristobal is also the site of the oldest surviving settlement in the Galapagos, El Progresso, established in 1869. It has since been overshadowed by a second town, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, located on the southeast coast. This is one of two points of departure for tour boats operating in the islands and nearly half the islands' 50,000 annual tourists pass through its airport, which has operatied since the mid-1980s.
San Cristobal island is made up of two coalesced volcanoes. The southwestern half is a symmetric shield volcano made up of gently-dipping lavas and capped by a thick, deeply-weathered pyroclastic blanket and numerous satellite cinder cones. The southwestern shield became emergent around 2.4 million years ago; activity continued up to about 650,000 years ago. The northeastern half of the island is a more recently active volcano, dominated by eruptions from NE-trending fissures. The most recent flows are no more than a few centuries old. Like its neighbors, Santa Cruz and Santa Fe, it lavas show very considerable chemical variation, with some being similar to basalts erupted at mid-ocean ridges [this kind of basalt is often called MORB for Mid-Ocean Ridge Basalt]. In stark contrast to Hawaiian volcanoes, there is no clear petrologic evolutionary trend displayed by San Cristobal lavas.

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Places to visit
Puerto Baquerizo Moreno
Founded by the colonist General Villamil in the mid-nineteenth century, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno was named after Alfredo Baquerizo Moreno, the first Ecuadorian president to visit the islands, in 1916. Despite being the capital of the Galapagos, it's a sleepy town, virtually lifeless in the heat of the early afternoon, only coming alive fully when the sun sets over the bay. It may not get as many visitors as Puerto Ayora, but there is a burgeoning industry here: along the waterfront, a glut of travel agents, cafes, restaurants and souvenir shops all show a town keen to cut itself a larger slice of the tourist pie. Puerto Baquerizo Moreno is a bit short of things to do, but there's enough on the island to keep visitors busy for a few days. Just outside the port, the Centro de Interpretacion has great displays of the archipelago's human and natural history. Puerto Baquerizo Moreno has also become the focus of the Galapagos' growing reputation among South Americans as a surfing hotspot, and the waves are best at the beginning of the warm-wet season, when the water is warm enough not to need a wet suit. Tongo Reef , west of town, is one of the better places to go for this.

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno has three main streets: on the waterfront, the Malecon Charles Darwin is where you'll find several tour agencies, restaurants, souvenir shops and the odd hotel; running parallel to it, a couple of blocks to the east, is the main thoroughfare servicing.

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El Progreso
In spite of a dire history, the island of San Cristobal has plenty to offer visitors. El Progreso, as Cobos’ small plantation village was ironically called, still exists and can be reached by truck or bus from Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, or by walking eight kilometers [five miles].

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El Junco lake
Ten kilometers [six miles] further up the road is the beautiful crater lake of Laguna El Junco, where you can walk around the rim, which is rich in plant and bird life. From the crater you can look out over most of the island, including the 900 m [3,000 ft] peak of Cerro San Joaquin. To the northeast you can also see the cliffs of Punta Pitt, the most spectacular visitors’ site on San Cristobal.

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Punta Pitt
As with most visitors’ sites on the Galapagos, the only way to reach Punta Pitt is by boat. Disembarking onto the small beach, visitors are confronted by the strong stench and cacophony of barking sea lions. At certain times of the year there are as many of these beautiful beasts are as bodies on West Palm beach on spring break. This is a bachelor colony, and most are exhausted from fighting and mating. They won’t budge an inch as you approach so you have to step around their basking bodies while being careful to avoid the source of the strong stench. A steep gully leads up the cliff to a breeding ground for boobies of all three varieties: red-footed, blue-footed and masked. It’s the only place in the Galapagos where you can see all three species nesting together.

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Galapaguera
The view from the top of the cliff over the beach of sea lions is magnificent, as are the contours of the barren, wind-eroded peaks of the island. The trail across the Punta Pitt site offers a closer look at the hardy vegetation that manages to thrive in this volcanic wasteland. From saltbush and spiny shrubs by the beach the trail leads up to an area of palo santos trees, big yellow-green shrubs, tiny cacti and, in the dry season, carpets of red sesuvium. A short distance westward along the coast from Punta Pitt is the new visitors’ site of Galapaguera, where giant turtles can sometimes be seen. Getting there involves a long hike so it’s advisable to go with a guide.

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Kicker Rock
Off the coast of San Cristobal are a number of steep, rocky islets that rise almost vertically from the sea. There’s good snorkeling around the islet opposite Punta Pitt, but the most impressive of these solitary, sea-girt towers is Leon Dormido [Sleeping Lion]. Also known as Kicker Rock, this twin-peaked cathedral of stone looks as if it had been split by a divine karate chop. Huge, cackling colonies of sea birds nest in its vertiginous walls, and it's a popular spot for scuba diving.

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