Cerro Dragon, Santa Cruz Island

It was early in the morning and the best time for a new visit. This time the site was "Cerro Dragon". In English it means "Dragon Hill", a name inspired by of the ancient creatures existing in Galápagos, the land iguana. This site is situated in the northwestern part of Santa Cruz Island, where the giant prickly cactus and the Palo Santo tree prevail.

After breakfast, we went deep-water snorkeling along the shore of one of the Guy Fawkes Islets. Formed by tuff, Guy Fawkes is surrounded by a rich upwelling which brings nutrients to this live and colorful wonderful sea garden.

We found a wall full of macro invertebrates, sessile organisms such as reef formers, branched, black, and solitary corals, sponges, zoanthids, bryozoans, tunicates, hydroids and mobile organisms such as sea stars, nudibranchia, green, white, pencil, and Diadem sea urchins. There were also many different kind of fish such as king angel fish, blennies, damselfish, parrotfish, butterflies, grazers, schools of cardinal fishes and striped salema among many others.

In the afternoon, after a delicious lunch and a short rest, we got ready for our next adventure. We chose between a second snorkeling excursion, enjoying the sandy beach or kayaking. Underwater was a bounty of fish. We were looking for sharks but instead we found some adorable endemic Galápagos penguins and a couple of younger sea lions. This made an amazing and memorable afternoon for our guests who had the chance to swim with them. This allowed our guests to feel just how enchanted the island could be.

I cannot wait for the next marvelous site to visit and the uniqueness that each one of them have for us!!!