Cerro Dragon and Eden, Santa Cruz Island
Today we are at the northwestern extreme of Santa Cruz Island. As we were walking towards Cerro Dragon we saw marine iguanas slowly making their way in to the water, white-cheeked pintail ducks filtering the organic ooze in a hyper-saline lagoon, finches feeding their young, vegetation that only grows if there’s enough rain, and many insects still reproducing, taking advantage of the food that it is available this year.
For a minute, seeing all this greenery, I thought about the last time we had seen land iguanas fighting over territory and just a few minutes ahead we found these two bright-yellow land iguanas performing a big territorial display in front of our very eyes–what a wonderful sighting!! Their bodies were swinging from side to side, heads bobbing up and down and here they came, pushing each other like wrestlers, until one took a big bite on the other, and he finally backed off, leaving the strongest one in charge of the land where he is going to reproduce with the females. This is how natural selection takes its course to select the most suitable genes to help the species persevere.
Submerging into the cool waters that bathe the shorelines of Guy Fawkes and Eden islets means discovering a whole different world; anemones, fan coral, a green sea turtle and even a white-tipped reef shark enhance our memories of the wonderful time we had today.
Blue-footed boobies, frigatebirds, nesting great blue herons, and even a pair of dancing blue-footed boobies during our zodiac cruise reassure us that this is a world and an experience of a lifetime which will never leave our memories.
