This morning explorers on board the National Geographic Endeavour are ready to disembark at the landing site of the island of Santa Cruz known as Cerro Dragon. After breakfast, we load the Zodiacs and disembark on the rocks to begin the visit. We walk along the coast and then head inland to a brackish water lagoon, where we find pink flamingos and many other lagoon birds. We are lucky enough to get close to a Galapagos land iguana before we continue to the area known as a highlight of this visitor site, a land iguana nesting ground.
In the heat we walk along the path where many more land iguanas are offering us very good chances for close-up pictures. After this walk we return to the landing site for a Zodiac ride back to the ship to get changed for deep water snorkeling and a wet landing on the beach for snorkeling off the beach.
The deep water snorkeling takes place at Guy Fawkes Rocks, a little islet close to the coast of Santa Cruz. We stay there for about 40 minutes snorkeling with tropical and reef fishes. Visibility is not perfect but good enough for us to see the beauty the islet holds. After this stop, we get ready to go back for lunch.
In the afternoon the National Geographic Endeavour is circumnavigating Daphne Islet, the research area of scientists dedicated to understanding the evolution of the three species of Darwin finches that inhabit the island. Soon after this stop we navigate to Bartolomé Island to overnight.
