South Plaza and Santa Fe Islands
Continuing our exploration of the central part of the archipelago, today we visited two of the most famous places in the Galápagos Islands. These islands are home to many different species of wildlife, including two species of land iguanas that are emblematic of these islands.
The first adventure of the day was devoted to enjoying the wonders of nature at South Plaza Island. After a dry landing on a small dock, we were walking on smooth white rocks, polished by sea lions’ bodies during thousands of years inhabiting this island. Behind us a group of swallow-tailed gulls slept placidly while a group of land iguanas nodding their heads caught the attention of our guests. We began to walk, crossing the small island horizontally. We observed land iguanas feeding on leaves on top of the bushes. Along the path there were many burrows, places where the iguanas stay the night or seek protection against the inclemency of the weather, especially during the cold season when temperature decreases considerably, being poikilothermic, their body temperature depends on the environmental temperature. We arrived at the highest part of the island, the view was spectacular — we observed Santa Cruz and Santa Fe Islands in the distance, but much closer, shear waters, brown noddy terns and Nazca boobies delighted our guests.
It was 11:00 am when our Captain John Zurita lifted the anchor and we headed to Santa Fe Island. After lunch we started our activities with two outings: kayaking and deep-water snorkeling. Our guests enjoyed the company of many sea turtles and sea lions who invited them to play, chasing and swimming around of us; afterwards we returned to National Geographic Islander to prepare for the next outing — a walk along the island. We disembark on a beach that was full of sea lions. We headed inland along a rocky trail and after few minutes just in front of us a group of land iguanas lying on the rocks, but their color was a little different compare with the others we observed this morning. Of course we were in front of the “Santa Fe” iguana, paler than the first one; they weren’t afraid of us, so our guests enjoyed taking many pictures of them. We crossed a green forest of typical flora in Galápagos ascending to the highest part of the trail, where we observed an impressive landscape of the island.
It was getting late, and as the sunset was telling us that it was time to go back, the last surprise was awaiting us: two Galápagos racer snakes moved rapidly between the rocks, thus making us accelerate our steps. It was getting dark and birds started singing a natural symphony as if they were trying to make us stay for a little longer. Finally, after a long and exciting walk, we arrived at National Geographic Islander, our home during this magical week.
