Dragon Hill & Chinese Hat

Waking up early in the morning is not something that we really like, however some of the best moments can be at this time of the day, that’s why we do our best for it.

In the north-west side of the island where I come from, a very curious creature named the land iguana arrived centuries ago and found a habitat that no one else desires. These animals had no competition for the food supply and for nesting grounds. Only a few females are observed fighting for the small patches of soil that are softer around Dragon Hill.

Around two hundreds years ago the first humans arrived to the Island and collected a few tortoises from the highlands, but at the same time they introduced the first animals in the delicate areas. Some of them managed to survive in this inhospitable environment by feeding on some of the endemic animals. The land iguanas were affected, especially by some feral dogs that are still alive somewhere into the forest and the population declined to a critical point. These introduced animals were removed and some land iguanas were relocated to small islets not so far away from a mangrove bay named Venice, and also in Puerto Ayora, to breed. Many years later these animals have increased their numbers to a few dozen. And, after a decade, they were repatriated previous to the eradication of dogs, cats and even goats and donkeys that predated and competed for food with them.

One of the most important censuses occurred ten years ago and a good number was reported since they are naturally reproducing in the wild. 863 was the lucky number for the year 2000, especially because with the last El Niño event they increased their size and population. Now we are able to find many of these yellow colored reptiles warming up early in the morning out of their tunnels.

The temperature early in the morning raised fast and we went back aboard to prepare ourselves to snorkel around Guy Fawkes Islets. Those are a couple of volcanoes made of ashes and are very old, we can’t even guess what they really are if we don’t look well by satellite pictures. They are also a good place to snorkel and it is very deep to see the bottom.

In the afternoon between Santiago and Chinese Hat some of our guest snorkeled again. Penguins and sharks were here. Someone spotted a different species which looked like a Lemon shark, however those are not in the Galápagos, but we are still having the benefit of the doubt.

We also kayaked along the shores of this magnificent paradise.