The morning was fresh and the sky is clear. Typically the weather at this time of the year is drizzly with chilly mornings, but today the weather has been a bit out of the norm.
Early in the morning at 6:30am we were ready to “jump” onto the island-It was a small jetty to our dry landing. As soon as we set foot on South Plaza Island we saw dozens of sea lions swimming and playing in pools along the shoreline while land iguanas struggled to get a piece of cactus to chew. Lava lizards are on the top of some sea lions that are resting on the rocks after spending days in the ocean feeding. Up in the sky, frigate birds wait for opportunities to steal some food from the red billed tropic birds, or from boobies that were fishing in the vast turquoise bay that separates South Plaza from North Plaza. The whole scenario is breathtaking. The land is covered by sesuvium, a type of succulent, fleshy shrub that turns red-purple in the dry season, but now because of the rain is still green, and many Opuntia cacti are shaken by the strength of the trade winds.
Our trail takes us to a cliff that we explore while several species of birds fly by. We saw brown pelicans, petrels, shearwaters and others. Our avid photographers and explorers enjoyed the moment. Plaza offers to us a wide variety of wildlife, it is a small island but very diverse. From finches to frigates, from lava lizards to marine iguanas we observed plenty of interesting creatures. After almost a two hour walk we returned to the National Geographic Islander happy and hungry.
After three hours of navigation we arrived to Santa Fe. At this location a few weeks ago the Galapagos national park service re- introduced 200 juvenile tortoises from the saddle back morph type to restore the ecosystem and the ecology of the island which was affected many years ago by the feral goats, that thanks to an eradication program were removed from here.
We had various activities offered and some of our guests went kayaking along the very interesting coast of the island where many creatures rest or nest. Others went for deep water snorkeling. I filmed the submarine world and we saw fascinating marine life. First we found Razors and King angel fish, then a big school of Salemas and later on sharks, turtles, (both green and hawk billed) white spotted eagle rays and other kinds of multicolor fish, crustaceans, coral, sea fans, and more.
Then we went for a short walk. We landed on a very small beach were about 50 sea lions form a colony. It is so great to sit on the beach and contemplate how they interact. Once inland we found several Santa Fe land iguanas, which is an endemic species of iguana in this location, found only here and no other place in Galapagos. The forest of giant Opuntia cacti is also special and unique to the island,
It has been a great day, full of surprises. All our expectations were fulfilled!
