This morning we arrived to the north-western coast of Santa Cruz Island, and landed on a site known as Cerro Dragon. This place has a good number of Galapagos land iguanas, and we found several as we walked towards the hill. As we walked through the incense tree forest, we also observed some of Darwin finches, Galapagos mockingbirds, and as a surprise we found a small new born Galapagos land iguana, well camouflaged in a small bush.
As we returned aboard, we prepared to go snorkeling along the walls of Guy Fawkes Islet. We found several species of fish and colorful marine invertebrates such as sea stars, sea urchins, sponges, and black coral. For our guests who wanted to swim in a shallower area, we visited a nearby beach—its sand color was white and the waters around it shone, a bright turquoise blue.
After these two activities we returned to our ship for a typical Ecuadorian lunch, with food from the highlands and the coast of our country. We had a great display of fruits vegetables that are widely used in our very rich cuisine.
For the afternoon, we navigated towards Daphne major islet, where we learned about the incredible scientific work carried out by scientists Peter and Rosemary Grant on Darwin finches. Along its coast, we also had the chance to observe different sea birds such as Nazca boobies, great and magnificent frigatebirds, brown noddies, blue-footed boobies and swallow-tailed gulls.
We ended our day with a colorful sunset by Daphne Major, as we watched the many birds that live here.
