South Plazas and Santa Fe Islands
The National Geographic Islander anchored today in South Plazas Island. This small uplift is situated at the eastern side of Santa Cruz. The island is home to the Galápagos land iguana, Conolophus subcristatus, which a couple of decades ago was in danger of extinction. Today, due to the efforts of the Galápagos National Park, the archipelago has a healthy population of these emblematic reptiles. We found them hiding from the strong equatorial sun in the shade projected by tree-like prickly pear cactus.
The island itself is a combination of colors. The Sesuvium, or carpetweed, covers the boulders with the different colors of its leaves that changed from green to yellow and from orange to red. At the end of the trail we found a population of male sea lions known as the Bachelor’s colony. Young males grow and become stronger so that one day they can have their own colony, and the old Alpha males return to that colony to rest from their tough days of fighting to conserve their colony. The day was sunny so we came back to jump from the ship into the sea and to swim around to refresh our bodies from this exciting morning.
We navigated to Santa Fe Island and our afternoon started with water activities. Sea turtles surrounded our snorkelers and kayakers, and spotted eagle rays seemed to be flying under the sea with the elegant movement of their “wings”. The island “welcoming party” included sea lion pups playing at the beach while we changed to our hiking shoes. The trail at Santa Fe Island crosses though a forest of palo santo and giant opuntia cactus. The iguana that lives in this island is found nowhere else in the world. As we climbed to the summit of a cliff we could feel the wind while we enjoyed an amazing view of the bay.
We were ready to go back to our home, the National Geographic Islander. Tomorrow another amazing day is waiting for us.
