Dragon´s Hill & Chinese Hat

This was perfect weather to start our activities at Dragon´s Hill, calm seas and clouds covered the equatorial sky of the northern part of Santa Cruz Island.

This visitor site offers the chance to see a population of land iguanas restored by the Galápagos National Park. The land iguanas had to be moved to nearby islets in order to protect them from the predation of feral cats, dogs and the destruction of their natural habitat by feral donkeys and goats.

Perhaps around 700 individuals roam the slopes of this small hill now, breeding naturally without any help; they move here and there warming up, sun bathing, feeding on cacti or plants with succulent leaves and fruits. One male will protect a territory and defend it from other males. In his territory he will probably have around 10 females to reproduce with.

We also found four greater flamingos filtering brine shrimp and other crustaceans in a seasonal brackish lagoon; their pink feathers provided the dry landscape with a tinge of color, moving between the volcanic rocks and the green or silvery vegetation.

The National Geographic Endeavour sailed northwest to Chinese hat, a very small volcano near Santiago or James Island, surrounded by small spatter cones with a very beautiful bay to snorkel, kayak, Zodiac cruise or simply enjoy a coralline sand beach with playful sea lions.

A very small colony of Galápagos penguin live here, nesting in the lava tubes and feeding in these cold nutrient-rich waters of the islands. This third small penguin of the world is the only one found on the equator, his ancestors – the Magellan penguin- arrived on the islands many years ago, and reduced their body sizes in order to cope up with a limited amount of food and very drastic changes in water temperatures.

Two types of birds, flamingos and penguins, associated with very different environments, living in the same region, and we got to see them both in their natural habitats on the same day. It is not every day that you see a penguin sitting in front of cactus.

This is why Galápagos is so unique, and for a very good reason is one of the World Heritage Sites.