Dragon Hill & Chinese Hat
We left Puerto Ayora and navigated to the northwestern side of the island. The National Geographic Endeavour anchored at Dragon Hill. Even if yesterday we visited the same island, it looks so different, you couldn’t see a single sign of civilization in this area.
Dragon Hill, a protected area of the National Park, has one of the healthiest populations of Galapagos land iguanas. The walk started with a brackish water lagoon that welcomes many shorebirds this time of year. We observed some least sandpipers and western sandpipers, several American oyster catchers, black necked stilts, ruddy turnstones, semi palmated plovers, and a solitary flamingo that decorated the lagoon with its pink coloration. We spotted at least 12 land iguanas on the trail.
The area was desolated as there has been no rain yet. Iguanas are waiting for the first vegetation to come up with the warm season. Until then they survived with prickly pear cactus. At the end of this walk we headed to the snorkeling site or the beach. There were options for everyone. Deep water snorkelers enjoyed sharks, manta rays, and sea lions. At the beach we relaxed and had a nice morning surrounded by the blue waters of the archipelago.
In the afternoon we navigated to Chinese Hat. Here we enjoyed all different activities: snorkeling, kayaking and time to visit a beautiful beach. We saw a lot of wildlife at this place including sharks, sting rays, penguins and marine iguanas feeding underwater.
Chinese Hat is well known for the most amazing sunsets. Today was no exception. With this sunset we closed the curtain on today’s play. Good night penguins and sea lions, we have a new date tomorrow!
