Santa Cruz Island (Cerro Dragón & Edén Islet)
We navigated to the northwestern side of the enchanted archipelago and this morning visited Dragon Hill, a place known as the natural habitat of the endemic land iguanas. The misty season has already touched this place, providing tons of food for these reptiles. Along our hike we found many endemic plants and land birds feeding off their fruits. Cerro Dragon is a place where the Galápagos National Park Service had collaborated with many efforts, controlling the population of the introduced species which used to cause great damage to the nesting grounds of the iguanas by eating the eggs of the hatchlings.
After our hike, we came back to the National Geographic Endeavour and got ready to explore the underwater wonders of the Galápagos by going on a snorkeling outing around the Guy Fawkes Islets. Snorkeling was amazing – we had the opportunity to see invertebrates of all kinds along the vertical walls of these islets, and some turtles and schools of fish interacting with each other. Some playful sea lions showed up, swimming along with us.
During the afternoon a Zodiac ride was offered around Eden Islet, so we navigated again around Santa Cruz Island. Some of us chose to explore this island; kayakers left first and then we Zodiac riders went out later. It was a bit misty and windy this time but we certainly saw many species along the coast. A couple of nests from great blue herons were spotted with the herons on them incubating their eggs. Blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans and other birds were delighted by the mist falling over the small leaves of the incense trees.
