Today we visited Santa Cruz Island on the northern side, a place known as Dragon Hill where the Galapagos National Park reintroduced land iguanas successfully decades ago. We walked along a trail after a dry landing and a brackish lagoon allowed us to see marine iguanas, pintail ducks, black-necked stilts and sanderlings. Further inland we spotted several yellow land iguanas on both sides of the trail. Land iguanas have no food source but for the opuntia cactus pads and because of this, we usually found them near the cactus trees waiting patiently for a pad to fall.
After the visit, we snorkeled around a volcanic ash structure while some guests enjoyed a white sandy beach near the landing site. After an Ecuadorian lunch, we sailed to Eden where zodiac-driving lessons were given while some guests kayaked and others went for a zodiac ride.
Later we sailed towards Daphne Island, which is famous for the research on evolution done by Peter and Rosemary Grant from Princeton University; they proved that evolution occurs fast by measuring the size of the beaks of finches on that island. We enjoyed a wine tasting event as we sailed around Daphne ending a great day.
