South Plaza & Santa Fe Islands
We landed on a red carpet island, full of endemic dragons and many species of birds flying along the cliffs. South Plaza Island was our visitor site to explore today. The landing spot was guarded by many sea lions which were playing and showing off in a very energetic welcoming committee. The land iguanas are the dragons of the Galápagos and this island makes a perfect habitat for them. Many individuals were seen eating the prickly pear cactus, while others were just basking in the sun, as the temperature can help their digestion.
The red colors on the flat, uplifted island of South Plaza makes this a very colorful landscape; this red succulent is known as “Galápagos carpet weed.” We were lucky on our exploration and even encountered a short-eared owl eating the remains of a storm petrel it had caught. As we were finishing our loop trail, more top predators were seen and this time we spotted some Galápagos sharks by the shoreline trying to hunt some nearby sea lions.
We navigated toward another small island, but this time to explore some more endemic dragons unique to their place; the endemic land iguanas of Santa Fe Island share their habitat with the endemic Galápagos rice rats. This species of rice rats as well as the iguanas are unique to Santa Fe. Some snakes were seen on our path and two of the highlights of the endemic flora here were the ancient giant prickly pear cacti and the colorful Galápagos doves looking for seeds among the dry vegetation. We also had the chance to explore the underwater world of Galápagos and went snorkeling at the bay of Santa Fe.
As we were heading back on board we encountered a large number of white-tipped reef sharks resting in the shallow waters of Santa Fe Bay.
