I love the garua season, when mornings and late afternoons are overcast, but we have sunny middays with cooling breeze. This is also the time when (most) sea lions give birth, and seabirds breed and nest. Creatures of the ocean thrill with the abundance of nutrients and fish brought up north by the Humboldt Current. It probably isn’t the favorite months for land iguanas however. They are herbivores; therefore the more rain the better as more food resources are available for them. But they seemed to be indifferent to the season, as they seem to be indifferent to their world anyway. We found several land iguanas along the trail of Cerro Dragon, the Dragon Hill where once their existence was threatened by wild dogs, and where today they wander safe and free. This part of Santa Cruz is being restored, as many islands and sites of the Galápagos. It’s taken years of hard work and collaboration, but we can see the results of the combined efforts of the Galápagos National Park and Charles Darwin Research Station to preserve this unique archipelago.
For the afternoon we sailed west, searching for marine mammals and adventures. Bottlenose dolphins showed up, made acrobatic jumps in front of the ship and followed us, bow riding the National Geographic Endeavour. Then we circumnavigated Daphne Major, an islet that has been a laboratory of evolution, the case study of Peter and Rosemary Grant. Most guests had joined us at the bow. And with the perfect light of sunset and Daphne in the background we enjoyed a wine tasting, trying several kinds of whites and reds, delicious trout and cheese, in the companionship of new friends. Sweet smiles and lovely conversations in good company, with the sun setting and the stars rising, it was pure magic!
