Cerro Dragón & Sombrero Chino
Cerro Dragon on Santa Cruz Island was our visiting site in the morning, together with a group of islets called the Guy Fawkes. Our activities after breakfast included a hike around Cerro Dragon to look for land iguanas, deep-water snorkeling at Guy Fawkes, and beach time at a white coralline sand beach near Cerro Dragon.
Five groups went on board our fleet of Zodiacs toward Cerro Dragon to do a nature hike; this area has an amazing landscape due to its unique vegetation: the giant prickly pear cactus and the Palo Santo tree are the predominant vegetation. Land iguanas and flamingos were spotted, as well as Darwin finches and Galápagos mockingbirds.
Later in the morning some of our guests went deep-water snorkeling at Guy Fawkes. The conditions in the water were perfect: the water temperature was the warmest we have had this week, and the sunny day gave us the best visibility. Big schools of fish, sea lions and a deep wall with colorful marine invertebrates were the highlights. At the beach we did some swimming and just had a leisurely time resting and sunbathing.
In the afternoon we dropped anchor very close to two different islands, Sombrero Chino and Santiago. All our activities took place at a very calm channel in between these two Islands: we started with deep-water snorkeling, then we went to a beach, and finally we finished our day kayaking. This afternoon we had the perfect weather; it was so nice to see the sun setting on Santiago Island while kayaking. The sea lions and the big schools of fish were the highlights of the snorkeling expedition.
As an alternative for those people who did not go kayaking or snorkeling, we offered a Zodiac ride to explore the shoreline of Santiago and Sombrero Chino islands. When we were almost finished, just at sunset, three penguins came out of the water and headed up to the rocks right in front of us, as though they were posing for us. It was a nice way to finish our visit.
