Plaza and Santa Fe Islands
This morning dawned breezy, cool and gray, but that is to be expected in the garua season. Cool mornings make for good wildlife viewing as the animals do not need to hide from the hot tropical sun and are out and about, going about their daily activities where they can easily be seen and photographed. This morning we disembarked on a small concrete dock and right away found our first land iguanas. These large reptiles are for the most part vegetarians and feed on the Opuntia cactus, and various other flowering plants. Occasionally when the opportunity arises they will eat carrion; like the other species that have survived and adapted to life on this arid islands, the land iguanas are not too picky and will make a meal of anything edible that they happen to find!
This morning there were dozens of land iguanas to be seen on South Plaza. Plaza is a small island, covered in the succulent Sesuvium mat plants which are reddish in color this time of the year. There is also an open forest of prickly pear cactus – Opuntia – and the iguanas were seen mostly around these cactus trees which provide their staple food. One healthy iguana was munching on a spiny cactus fruit!
We hiked along the top of the southern cliffs of Plaza and admired soaring frigates, boobies, and in particular the lovely and graceful swallow-tailed gulls that floated and glided on the wind. This nocturnal gull is one of the most beautiful gulls in the world and the only one that feeds at night! Along the lower section of the trail we found sea lions and lava rocks that had been rubbed to the shine and smoothness of polished marble from thousands of years of sea lions dragging their heavy bodies across them as they searched for crannies to hide in and shelter for the night.
The sun shone timidly as we continued our walk this morning and the colors of the island came to life: greens of the cactus, reds of the Sesuvium and blue of the ocean beyond. Back on board the ship in the late morning Naturalist Jonathan enlightened us with his interesting talk about the “Human History of Galapagos,” and then we enjoyed a delicious buffet lunch and a well-earned siesta while the ship navigated to our next site.
In the afternoon there were options first for kayaking or snorkeling and then for long or short hikes on the island of Santa Fe. The sun was out and the bay was calm where we snorkeled so we were able to see many species of fish, a few rays, sea lions and to our delighted, several white tipped reef sharks and a couple of sea turtles! The kayakers traveled by Zodiac down the north coast and then along the island towards the west and spied several turtles and sea lions and had a wonderful hour of paddling.
After a quick change out of wetsuits and damp clothes, the hikers disembarked on a beach covered in sea lions. Those who chose to do the short hike hit the jackpot with the endemic land iguana sightings: they spotted five of them! The long hikers followed a rocky dry rain runoff stream bed that has not flowed since the last El Niño year in the late 90’s. They climbed a narrow cliff and had a great view of the turquoise bay below them and saw several lava lizards, endemic painted locusts and Galapagos hawks along the trail.
