Dragon Hill & Eden, Santa Cruz Island
We continued exploring the island of Santa Cruz, this time visiting an interesting area, where the National Park had restored the natural habitat for the land iguanas of the Galapagos. About 350 iguanas that hatched in captivity were moved back to this visitor site, where land iguanas previously lived, far from introduced species. After a dry landing we walked further into the island to explore the arid zone where these reptiles were nesting. Some were found eating pieces of prickly pear cactus, while other females were coming out of their nesting grottos. After a successful outing we went snorkeling around some satellite islets of Santa Cruz.
During the afternoon we took a zodiac ride along the coast of Eden islet, where many blue footed boobies were seen, as well as some rays and sharks in the tide pools. Some of us chose to go kayaking, enjoying all the landscape created by the mangroves and the black lava flows meeting the ocean. Our younger explorers had the chance to learn how to drive a zodiac in the Galapagos waters.
By sunset, the National Geographic Endeavour had nearly circumnavigated Daphne major islet, to explore the territory where the Grants (a couple of British scientists who visited this area to study finches) once researched. There, we learned more about Darwin finches and their evolutionary behavior in the enchanted islands.
