Today at first light National Geographic Endeavour gently rode its anchor in the calm waters on the northern shores of Santa Cruz Island at the anchorage off Cerro Dragon as Expedition Leader Paula made her weather update.
After a nutritious breakfast we set off to hike at “Dragon Hill” which has been named after the yellow/orange land iguanas that inhabit the nearby semi-arid incense tree forest.
After reaching the shore onboard our sturdy zodiacs we landed on a rocky outcrop and made our way across a small beach to reach the beginning of the inland trail. Right after leaving the shore we noticed a couple of American flamingoes that foraged in a shallow brackish water lagoon right next to us not letting us disturb them as if they would purposely be trying to ignore us.
As we made our way inland the difference between the evergreen salt tolerating vegetation on the shore and the hopelessly dry vegetation inland could not have been more striking. Once we all reached the foot of the hill it wasn’t long before the first Land Iguanas where spotted. Some of them slowly moving across the landscape while some seemed to just be leaving their burrows. Something that didn’t seem that surprising taking into consideration that it was such an overcast morning. After completing the loop around the hill and several Land Iguana sightings we started making our way back to the landing sites. This had just been the beginning for an amazing day!
Next after a short stop back on our floating temporary home it was time for some underwater exploration. And so some of our guests returned to shore for snorkeling and swimming from the beach while others rode our zodiacs to nearby Guy Fawkes Islet for snorkeling. The visibility was quite good and the vertical walls along the islets where teeming with life. Once again the playful Galapagos sea lions stole the show despite of the spectacle of the thousands of Shearwaters tracking a large ball of baitfish that we came across in our way to the snorkeling site.
Once back on board we enjoyed a traditional Ecuadorian feast and after a well-deserved siesta National Geographic Endeavour set anchor a few miles to the West at Eden Islet. Here we would explore the shoreline of the Islet and the main Island of Santa Cruz from our zodiacs while our Young Explorers took some Zodiac driving lessons. We were surprised to find many young marine iguanas along the water edge. This turned out to be our best opportunity so far for spotting blue footed boobies from close up as well. Once we all returned to the ship naturalist Jason gave a talk on Oceanography as we started to sail towards our last destination for the day.
As the end of the afternoon drew closer we approached Daphne Major Islet for a circumnavigation only to discover a large pod of bottlenose dolphins which accompanied us as we turned and sailed into the sunset.
We finished off our afternoon with a wine tasting while we circumnavigated the islet right after sunset.
