Cerro Dragon, Santa Cruz Island & Chinese Hat Hill, Santiago Island
This morning we woke off the shores of the same island that we visited yesterday, but in a different location, the northern side. Our main objective was to see by ourselves the very successful land iguana breeding program that have been carry on by the National Park since the mid seventies.
We also appreciated the contrast of the arid zone, after spending the whole afternoon yesterday in the humid area of the island.
All of our guests were amazed to see the big difference between the southern and the northern side of Santa Cruz Island. This phenomenon takes place due to the south-west winds, which shower the southern slopes more frequently and as a result, the vegetation is lusher on one side of the same island.
As we were walking, one of our guests spotted a large male iguana sun bathing; soon after, a dozen of them appeared out of nowhere! On our way back to the landing area, we came across a new trail recently opened by the Galápagos National Park (GNP) that we of course decided to explore. This path ended at a white sand beach where some of our guests swam. For the more adventurous, we headed to Guy Fawkes Rocks for our deep water snorkeling. This is a place where one can see a lot of invertebrates such as nudibranches and echinoderms and many different species of fish, of course. It was a total surprise when a huge Manta Ray decided to swim with us for a few minutes.
After this amazing morning, we sailed off to Chinese Hat Island; this is a tiny island located off the Coast of Santiago Island.
It was still early in the afternoon when we started our activities with deep water snorkelling, kayaking and beach time. During the late afternoon we even had the opportunity to explore the coastal area of Chinese Hat and Santiago Island on board our Zodiacs. We were lucky to find sea lions, blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans and the always cute Galápagos Penguin.
At the end of our day, some of our guests witnessed a beautiful sunset observed from the sky deck. Just a few minutes later, two planets appeared up in the sky, Venus and Jupiter! Most of our guests were very happy to also see one of the most famous constellations in the Southern Hemisphere, the Southern Cross.
This morning we woke off the shores of the same island that we visited yesterday, but in a different location, the northern side. Our main objective was to see by ourselves the very successful land iguana breeding program that have been carry on by the National Park since the mid seventies.
We also appreciated the contrast of the arid zone, after spending the whole afternoon yesterday in the humid area of the island.
All of our guests were amazed to see the big difference between the southern and the northern side of Santa Cruz Island. This phenomenon takes place due to the south-west winds, which shower the southern slopes more frequently and as a result, the vegetation is lusher on one side of the same island.
As we were walking, one of our guests spotted a large male iguana sun bathing; soon after, a dozen of them appeared out of nowhere! On our way back to the landing area, we came across a new trail recently opened by the Galápagos National Park (GNP) that we of course decided to explore. This path ended at a white sand beach where some of our guests swam. For the more adventurous, we headed to Guy Fawkes Rocks for our deep water snorkeling. This is a place where one can see a lot of invertebrates such as nudibranches and echinoderms and many different species of fish, of course. It was a total surprise when a huge Manta Ray decided to swim with us for a few minutes.
After this amazing morning, we sailed off to Chinese Hat Island; this is a tiny island located off the Coast of Santiago Island.
It was still early in the afternoon when we started our activities with deep water snorkelling, kayaking and beach time. During the late afternoon we even had the opportunity to explore the coastal area of Chinese Hat and Santiago Island on board our Zodiacs. We were lucky to find sea lions, blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans and the always cute Galápagos Penguin.
At the end of our day, some of our guests witnessed a beautiful sunset observed from the sky deck. Just a few minutes later, two planets appeared up in the sky, Venus and Jupiter! Most of our guests were very happy to also see one of the most famous constellations in the Southern Hemisphere, the Southern Cross.
