South Plaza and Santa Fe Islands, 7/11/2024, National Geographic Islander II
Aboard the
National Geographic Islander II
Galápagos
Today, we visited two small and fascinating islands: South Plaza Island, located near the northern part of Santa Cruz and Santa Fe Island to the east. These islands are inhabited by two different species of iguanas, the Galapagos land iguana and the Santa Fe land iguana. Additionally, each island grows a different species of prickly pear cacti, characterized by features specific to their individual habitats.
Aside from this, we observed several sea birds and a few colonies of the iconic Galapagos sea lion.
Javier grew up on Santa Cruz island where his grandparents first arrived in the 1940´s. Veritable pioneers, his grandparents settled in the highlands where they found a place to raise their children.
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For our last day, we anchored in Darwin Bay on Genovesa Island, known as “Bird Island.” We started our morning with a walk along the beach, where a mangrove serves as a refuge for a diverse group of marine birds, including frigatebirds, gulls, and boobies. We complemented our wonderful morning with snorkeling and kayaking activities. In the afternoon, we explored the other side of this horseshoe-shaped bay, a place known as “El Barranco.” We visited the famous Prince Philip’s Steps, which took us 25 m up the cliff. We were amazed by a beautiful colony of seabirds and a raptor species, the short-eared owl.
We started our day with a Zodiac ride around Chinese Hat. We had an amazing ride around penguins and sea lions where we would eventually snorkel. In the afternoon, we continued the lovely day with an amazing walk on an old lava field at Sullivan Bay. Sullivan Bay was originally a lava field formed in the 1880s. Later, we altered its topography by rebuilding much of the southwest part of the island.
This morning, we set foot on South Plaza Islet, a tiny but full of life satellite rock located on the east side of Santa Cruz Island. This place has a large population of yellow land iguanas, a large colony of sea lions, and many other species to observe such as lava lizards, Swallow-tailed gulls, mockingbirds, and a variety of finches. As we walked through the cliffs, we could observe a few red-billed tropic birds and frigatebirds flying. The afternoon offered the first snorkeling of the expedition in the crystal-clear waters of Santa Fe Island. Snorkeling with sea lions can be one of the best experiences our guests can experience in the Galapagos, and today was spectacular. Sea lions were very playful and colorful fish were abundant. Later in the afternoon, we landed at one of the beaches in the bay to go looking for a different species of iguana, the pale land iguana. It was such a treat to find not one or two, but four of them together in the same place. Definitely a great afternoon as well!
