We anchored today in South Plaza where we are half way through in our Galápagos expedition. Right now we are moving along the central part of the Archipelago. We left Santa Cruz Island in the early hours, and travelled around its southern side to reach our morning destination South Plaza Island. This tiny island is our destination for this morning. It is small but it is teeming with a great number of life forms. Our first impression is the surrounding landscape. Once you reach the calm shallow shore you are greeted by three baby sea lions. As we landed, we spotted land iguanas coming out of the cactus forest and some of them gathered underneath the cactus trees waiting for a fruit to drop off. This island is not only a colony of iguanas and sea lions; it is also a breeding colony for sea birds; swallow-tailed gulls, tropic birds, Galápagos shear waters and lots of land birds as well: the amazing Galapagos finch, specially, the iconic cactus finch. Once on board, we were jumping overboard for the fun of it, as an amenity.
In the afternoon we visited Santa Fe Island. Here, we explored the island from kayaks and also we sent a couple of groups snorkeling with the aim of seeing rays, turtles and sharks: we saw the 8-footer Galapagos shark! While kayaking we had also very cool sightings: the rocky cliffs of Santa Fe, sea birds, sea lions and we also spotted a blue footed boobies.
