Today the Galapagos exploration brought us to two of the most iconic places found at the center of the archipelago. South Plaza Island was the start of today´s expedition. After a comfortable dry landing, we got everything ready in order to experience a land iguana island. The first surprise of the morning was a young land iguana feeding on top of a bush. Farther into the trail, the green vegetation that was covering the island like a natural carpet displayed magnificent colors. Land iguanas were found almost everywhere we hiked and different kinds of sea birds were flying above us. The presence of a sea lion colony was the perfect decoration for the coastal trail and the clear sky along with the blue sea made us feel like we were in paradise.
Once back onboard the National Geographic Islander we started navigation in order to reach our next destination, Santa Fe Island. Deep water snorkeling was the first adventure of the afternoon and the underwater exploration along the coastline had a lot of surprises in store. The charms of the Galapagos Marine Reserve were displayed in a combination of reef fish and Galapagos sea lions.
A wet landing in the afternoon provided a great introduction to the second half of the day’s adventures. A hike into Santa Fe´s dry forest was going to be the main activity on the Island. Our goal was to find the Santa Fe land iguana that happens to be endemic to this location. Several individuals, from little babies up to mature iguanas, were found throughout the visit. At the end of our journey the sky was decorated with the red and orange, magnificent sunset. Tomorrow the enchanted islands have more surprises to show us as we approach the end of expedition.
