Cerro Dragon & Sombrero Chino Island
We woke up on the northwest end of Santa Cruz Island; we were anchored in between Cerro Dragon and the Guy Fawkes islets.
We started our day with a land excursion to Cerro Dragon, a place named after the land iguanas that inhabit that area. This site is covered with singular vegetation like cactus, holy stick, salt bush, leather leaf, and other varieties of plants that have been well adapted to this dry environment.
During our hike we spotted several land iguanas; the males were competing for the females with fights and impressive displays in their bright yellow breeding colorations. Our guests photographed great images of these interesting creatures. Afterwards, some people went for snorkeling where they were fascinated by the amount of wildlife in that spot, Guy Fawkes Islet. This has one of the most colorful vertical walls in the archipelago; we were delighted by the presence of a huge bait ball of black striped salemas, a great snorkel.
Later we repositioned the ship to our next destination, Sombrero Chino Island; there we had several options. A beautiful bay with turquoise shallow water made the perfect place for water activities, such as kayaking, snorkeling, zodiac riding, and beaching. The scenery in this location is so impressive with a candelabra cactus forest close to the shoreline of Santiago Island, and huge pahoehoe lava fields. Our guests were fascinated with beautiful king angel fish, parrot fish and so many other species that were found there, as well as a couple of white tipped reef sharks, and of course the Galápagos penguins that swam among the snorkelers.
We ended the day with a delicious barbecue on the teak deck watching the sky and feeling that the world can be a better place to live.
