This island has interesting vestigial signs of a volcanic uplifting along the coast. Due to the amount of wildlife and beautiful landscapes, South Plaza is often referred as a miniature Galapagos where the biology and geology of the place are perfectly combined.
The view we get after landing is not only the striking marine landscape but a cacti forest that dominates the scene surrounded by a dreamlike red vegetable carpet weed. In this setting colorful Galapagos land iguanas (Conolophus subcristatus) were seen wandering around.
We were accompanied by some light rain as we walked along the cliffs on this island where we had the chance to photograph a wide variety of birds nesting on the cliffs. Galapagos shearwaters were seen swiftly skimming the ocean surface looking for food. Some Darwin finches like the common cactus finches were also seen pecking on the few left cactus flower.
After lunch, we navigated to Santa Fe Island. Once there, it was time to get ready for kayaking along the magical coastline of this visitor site filled with prickly pear cacti. We also went snorkeling and spotted sharks, eagle rays and some pacific sea turtles. After the water activities we put on our walking outfits to explore Santa Fe Island by walking. The landing beach is home to many Galapagos sea lions most to them at this time of the day, coming back from fishing to feed their chicks. The rocky inland trail led us to encounter a couple of pale brownish green land iguanas, the famous Santa Fe land iguana (Conolophus pallidus). This pale species of iguanas, are only found on this small island, nowhere else in the Galapagos, nowhere else in the whole planet! We also spotted a couple of Galapagos banded snakes and Galapagos scorpions.
We had a wonderful sunset and a farewell committee of almost a hundred Galapagos sea lions on the beach as we embarked back on our Zodiacs.
