We started early in the morning with a wonderful hike which traversed a combination of different vegetation zones. At Cerro Dragon, where the littoral zone is next to the dry zone, we were in search of one of the dragons of the Galapagos, the land iguana. Surprisingly, we encountered approximately 30 of these magnificent reptiles, mainly colorful males preparing for the mating season. This walk was followed by an exciting snorkeling excursion where we saw white-tipped reef sharks, rays, and many fish varieties.
In the afternoon, we visited Borrero Bay to kayak, paddleboard, and explore the shorelines while sitting comfortably in the Zodiac. We spotted baby sharks, both hammerheads and black-tipped.
We finished the day circumnavigating the Grants‘ laboratory of evolution (evolutionary biologists at Princeton University) on Daphne Major Island. This islet located north of Santa Cruz is the main research site that studies the natural selection mechanism noted by the changes in size and shape of Darwin’s finches. In simple terms, they quantified evolution.
