Cerro Dragon & Sombrero Chino
Today we visited many islands, having the chance to do snorkeling, hiking, and zodiac rides along them; because of that we came across a great diversity of both native and endemic species at different ecosystems.
Early in the morning after a delicious breakfast we went on a hike to Cerro Dragon, located on the northern side of Santa Cruz Island. Walking through the arid zone, we found a lot of land iguanas, most of them sun bathing near our trail. It seemed like they were getting ready to begin their foraging time. Later in the morning some of our guests went to a nice white sandy beach near Cerro Dragon, but most of us decided to go deep water snorkeling to a group of Islets named Guy Fawkes; at this site, the highlight was the big bull sea lion swimming quite close to us and a big wall full of very colorful marine invertebrates.
In the afternoon we went to the central part of the archipelago. The Captain dropped the anchor very close to two different Islands, Sombrero Chino and Santiago Island. We spent the rest of our day at a nice sheltered channel among Sombrero Chino and Santiago; here we could do kayaking, deep water snorkeling, and Zodiac riding, and we also had the chance to go to a small white sandy beach. The volcanic landscape was full of life with sea lions, Galápagos penguins and candelabra cacti that made our afternoon the best for picture taking. The snorkeling was one of the best with perfect conditions in the sea and very good light; we saw lots of fish and snorkeled with some penguins!
The sunset at Sombrero Chino Island was a magical moment. It made us realize that our day was coming to an end in this wonderful paradise.
