The first full day of exploration started with a pre-breakfast hike to the top of a young island, Bartolome. From the summit, we enjoyed one of the most iconic views of the archipelago, Pinnacle Rock. On the hike, we witnessed how the formation of islands works by seeing and learning from the geological features around the volcano. At the end of the visit, a group of penguins surprised us when they came to our Zodiac. They walked on shore right in front of our cameras.
In the afternoon, we visited Dragon Hill on Santa Cruz Island. We walked with an aim to visit the nesting grounds of land iguanas. We passed through the wetlands and a forest of cactus and incense trees before reaching the domain of the land iguanas. We found several males and females displaying and grazing on the green vegetation that still covers the ground, as the dry season has only just started.
