It's Saturday afternoon and the beginning of another week in paradise. It seems it was only a couple of days ago when I last visited this site, but no, it was last week. In a place where nature acts different on a daily basis, time seems to run very quickly. From one week to the next we actually notice the difference. This is what keeps us always hoping and expecting to see new things.
Cerro Dragon is the name given to this welcoming site. It was in 1975 when the Galapagos National Park Service along with the Charles Darwin Research Station decided to carry on a program to preserve the population of lands iguanas (Conolophus subcristatus) which was the healthiest population on the island. The large size of the animals determined the name of the site; Dragon Hill.
By 1979 the first baby iguanas were born in captivity. All the iguanas from Cerro Dragon had been transported to Venecia to keep them away from the feral dogs on the main island. Dirt had to be placed on these rocks so they would burrow and nest.
Fortunately the program had so much success with the eradication of feral dogs that in 1993 the site was opened for tourism.
We do not land on Cerro Dragon but rather take a Zodiac ride around several rocks that are filled with birds, crabs, mangroves and cacti and of course the stars of the afternoon: land iguanas. This afternoon we had the luck to see four! This may not sound like a great number, but when you have a small population restricted to six islands, it is a great number.
The site offers a combination of animals and plants that are very difficult to find together. A good example of this is that mangroves are found side by side with cacti. Only in the Galapagos one can find this rare combination. Unbelievable, but true.
