Northwestern Santa Cruz Island
Today we visited the north side of Santa Cruz Island. We started with a pre-breakfast sighting of a humpback whale and her baby. Not bad for starters…Our landing in Dragon Hill allowed us to learn about incense trees and flamingos, until we got to the hill itself. There, we met the elusive land iguana, together with many species of Darwin finches and mockingbirds that greeted us during the hike through the forest.
Well into the arid zone, a land of orange air-breathing dragons was waiting for us. Their territories were defined by groups of giant prickly pear cacti. Galápagos land iguanas almost went extinct in the last decades, when feral dogs invaded the area. The efforts of the Galápagos National Park Service removed the dogs and restored the population of land iguanas on the island.
We visited another island, Guy Fawkes, but only in its underwater realms. Sea lions and millions of fish framed the black coral and sponge formations that make this place a must-see in our snorkeling exploration.
Lunch was our traditional Ecuadorian buffet…some of our guests really considered acquiring Ecuadorian citizenship when they tasted the three-milk cake.
In the afternoon we navigated toward the islet known as Eden. Once we arrived, we had a Zodiac ride around this very interesting geological feature. We met oystercatchers, sharks and a ray that jumped off the water a couple of times. Oh, and several species of herons.
Our sunset was colored by a circumnavigation of Daphne Major, where a couple of scientists, Peter and Rosemary Grant, have been studying Darwin’s finches for decades. The finches were still there…
That was another day in paradise!
