Dragon Hill and Eden (Santa Cruz Island)

During our expedition aboard the National Geographic Endeavour we have decided to explore the central part of the enchanted archipelago, where interesting wildlife and a landscape created by volcanoes await us. This time we dropped anchor on the northwest side of Santa Cruz Island, and soon decided to go on a hike to find the prehistoric-looking Galápagos land iguanas in their natural habitat, this time at a visitor site known as Dragon Hill.

This side of the islands gets very little mist. During our walk we were lucky to find a greater flamingo feeding in a coastal lagoon, some pintail ducks and marine iguanas warming up in the isolated waters accumulated from the rain and filtration from the ocean. This area is completely covered with incense tress, making it a perfect habitat for species of Darwin finches and mockingbirds.

The volcanic rock in this place had eroded over time, making the ground dusty and perfect for the land iguanas to build their nest. We found several iguanas basking in the middle of the path and some others were pretty active, feeding off the prickly pear cacti. The National Park has been working here for a long time, eradicating some introduced species that were causing problems in this fragile ecosystem where the iguanas live. Plenty of iguanas now exist here, having been repatriated from the breeding center where they hatch in captivity. The population of these reptiles is healthy enough to self-sustain the numbers in the wild and shows great results in percentages of survival. We left behind the land of dragons, animals with hard scales and bright yellow colors, living a long life up to 60 years.

During the afternoon adventure the ship repositioned to Eden’s Islet ( a satellite islet of Santa Cruz), where some of us great expeditioners decided to explore the underwater world while some others went for a kayak or a Zodiac ride to look for blue-footed boobies, pelicans and some rays around the very picturesque red mangroves.

It was another great day in the enchanted archipelago.