South Plaza & Santa Fe Island
Today we visited two very small but beautiful islands, one in the morning and the other one in the afternoon. We had great sightings at both of them.
South Plaza is really very impressive during the dry season, for we can enjoy one of the most beautiful landscapes in Galápagos, vivid colors and contrasts. This small island gave us a chance to understand how nature thrives in its own way without human interference. Marine iguanas one of the most widespread animal species in Galápagos and live in situ with their cousins the land iguanas. Both start their breeding at the exact same time of year. A few years ago male marine iguanas interbred with female land iguanas resulting in hybrids. This is probably the only documented case where two different species have interbred in wild conditions on this unique Archipelago. In Galápagos we have many species that belong to the same family, but they are different species such as: the two species of frigates, two species of sea lions, three species of boobies and some other cases as well. The great question is: are they interbreeding? As we do not have clear evidence we cannot say anything, but the Fauna and Flora are out there and we should leave them to follow their own course.
During lunch we followed our navigation toward Santa Fe Island. There are two animal species that live only there and nowhere else on the Archipelago. Two land Santa Fe creatures: the Santa Fe Land iguana and the Santa Fe rice rat. And we were lucky, for we spotted both of them.
In Santa Fe we also had the opportunity to go snorkeling inside the bay with protected waters and no currents, making this a great snorkeling site for everyone. Once in the water we saw Galápagos sharks, white-tipped reef sharks, sting rays, tiger snake eels, Pacific green sea turtles and many other different species of fish as well.
The day was very intense with some other extra activities. A talk on the human history of Galápagos took place in our comfortable main lounge, while those more adventurous went kayaking, and we even had time to swim from the ship. It was a great full day on our expedition in the Enchanted Islands.
