Because tour boats must anchor offshore, visitors transfer from the boat to land via a panga (dinghy). The landing shown here is typical of the “dry landing” wherein the panga approaches a cement or (more frequently) lava dock of sorts and the passengers scramble across the bow to the dock. This can be an unsettling experience when the panga is heaving in the waves and the “dock” is covered in slippery seaweed and bird guano, especially when you are heavily laden with camera gear. At many locations there is no dock at all and the boat pulls up to the beach and passengers wade ashore in ankle-deep water.

In either case, the prudent photographer carries a waterproof backpack or encloses the camera bag in a large plastic sack during the transfer from boat to shore (and back again). I much came to prefer the wet landing; the sea bottoms at wet landing sites are sandy and footing much more secure, even if it meant carrying shore shoes around one’s neck and drying feet once ashore. I found that in most locations I could wade ashore in my Tevas and just leave them on for the short hikes over generally level ground. Only on the lava hike at Punta Moreno and at Punta Suárez were hiking boots necessary (and those were dry, though very slippery, landings).