Venice Islet and Dragon Hill
We arrived today at Santa Cruz Island and headed to the north western area to begin our day. Our target was to visit a place called Venice Islet in the morning and Dragon Hill in the afternoon.
Venice Islet is now the home for the endemic Galápagos land iguana that was introduced in the mid 70’s from a near by area at Santa Cruz Island, in an attempt to save the population from extinction. The program has been successful, and the land iguanas are in good numbers now. We went out on our Zodiacs looking for land iguanas and found lots of blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans, sharks, turtles, and different species of rays.
There were guests who wanted to explore the area by kayak, so we boarded them and headed to the magnificent water ways surrounded by mangrove plants. We also had a wonderful time looking at fish species during our deep water snorkeling at Guy Fawkes Islets. Those who wanted to snorkel in shallower waters headed to a gorgeous white sandy beach bathed by warm, turquoise waters.
During the afternoon we explored Dragon Hill looking for Galápagos land iguanas. At the beginning of our trail we arrived to a brackish water lagoon where we found some Western sand pipers, least sand pipers, common stilts, and Bahamas pintail ducks. Once we reached Dragon Hill we found some prehistoric looking land iguanas still basking under the last rays of the sun. The area where these iguanas live is covered with numerous burrows in use, and it certainly looked as if they were ready to go into their warm homes.
The vegetation around this location is still looking pretty dry; soon the rains will arrive and all the trees will sprout leaves and flowers for the land iguanas to have plenty to eat.
We had a magnificent sun set as we headed back to the Polaris, what else we could ask for?
We arrived today at Santa Cruz Island and headed to the north western area to begin our day. Our target was to visit a place called Venice Islet in the morning and Dragon Hill in the afternoon.
Venice Islet is now the home for the endemic Galápagos land iguana that was introduced in the mid 70’s from a near by area at Santa Cruz Island, in an attempt to save the population from extinction. The program has been successful, and the land iguanas are in good numbers now. We went out on our Zodiacs looking for land iguanas and found lots of blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans, sharks, turtles, and different species of rays.
There were guests who wanted to explore the area by kayak, so we boarded them and headed to the magnificent water ways surrounded by mangrove plants. We also had a wonderful time looking at fish species during our deep water snorkeling at Guy Fawkes Islets. Those who wanted to snorkel in shallower waters headed to a gorgeous white sandy beach bathed by warm, turquoise waters.
During the afternoon we explored Dragon Hill looking for Galápagos land iguanas. At the beginning of our trail we arrived to a brackish water lagoon where we found some Western sand pipers, least sand pipers, common stilts, and Bahamas pintail ducks. Once we reached Dragon Hill we found some prehistoric looking land iguanas still basking under the last rays of the sun. The area where these iguanas live is covered with numerous burrows in use, and it certainly looked as if they were ready to go into their warm homes.
The vegetation around this location is still looking pretty dry; soon the rains will arrive and all the trees will sprout leaves and flowers for the land iguanas to have plenty to eat.
We had a magnificent sun set as we headed back to the Polaris, what else we could ask for?
