Santa Cruz & Chinese Hat
Today we woke up on the northern side of Santa Cruz Island and we went to visit Dragon Hill, a place famous for the land iguanas. Although that species was supposed to be the one highlight of this morning, we were actually surprised by a lot of other encounters. As soon as we landed, we walked through a cactus forest and the cactuses here are much taller than in any other place, so it really makes it a unique environment to see giant cactus trees surrounding us with their sharp spines all facing downwards supposedly preventing them from getting eaten by iguanas. As we went a bit further we encountered a couple of beautifully pink flamingoes that were quite active at feeding with some common stilts.
By the end of the walk, when we had already seen about a dozen land iguanas, the rain started pouring and made it quite fun to walk around as the red dirt we were walking on became an extremely sticky mud that would make our shoes heavier with each step we took. It was actually quite fun to see everyone taking pictures of their beautifully red colored shoes!!
We finally made it back to the National Geographic Endeavour, a bit soaked and dirty but quite happy!
For me, this afternoon was quite special, because I was the lucky person to share our guest Tony’s first experience in snorkeling. To see how amazed he was with every new fish we would encounter and the sparkle of joy in his eyes made me smile, filled me up with happiness and made me realize how lucky I am to be living on these incredible islands. Thank you Tony for a great day!!
