This morning we disembarked on a small cement dock on South Plaza Island at 0800, just after breakfast. Dozens of young sea lions swirled and splashed in the calm water along the shore of the island while others were still sleeping lazily on shore since the morning was cool and gray. Immediately inland we found a half dozen land iguanas and we stopped to photograph the iguanas that were resting under huge branching Opuntia cacti. We admired and photographed the elegant swallow-tailed gulls; they too were resting this morning after having spent the night foraging at sea on squid and fish that come to the surface at dark. Then we followed our naturalists along a looping trail over rocky terrain that went along the top of a dramatic cliff and then cut across the center of the slope of the island.
South Plaza has a very large population of land iguanas and we saw dozens of them of all sizes as we walked. The multi colored Sesuvium mat plant – ranging in color from greens to yellows, oranges and reds – was a spectacular back-drop to our many sea bird, reptile and marine mammal photos!
In the late morning, after enjoying cookies and juice in reception, we joined Enrique for his talk about the Human History of the Galapagos. Lunch and siesta followed while the ship charged into the waves enroute to our afternoon visitor’s site at Santa Fe. Our afternoon here began with kayaking and snorkeling options and all those who joined either one of these activities had a fabulous time! We saw sea lions and sea turtles from the boats and from the water, but the highlight for my group was a 15 minute swim alongside a rare hawksbill sea turtle. This species is the source of an expensive and now illegal product called “tortoise shell” – though it actually comes from a sea turtle, not a tortoise! – and because of their valuable shell, these turtles are quite endangered. Please, never buy anything made of tortoise shell!
Our afternoon hike began on a white sandy beach among the boisterous sea lions. We dried our feet and put on our walking shoes and followed another rocky trail. This afternoon we searched for two unique and endemic critters that are found only on this island in all the world: the Santa Fe land iguana and the Santa Fe rice rat. We were delighted to find several individuals of both of these species! In addition we saw where the world renowned photographer, Tui DeRoy, whom we met over lunch yesterday in the highlands of Santa Cruz where she lives. Scientists are camping for ten days while they find and photograph the baby tortoises that have recently been released on this island by the National Park. Hopefully, sometime in the not so distant future, we will come across one of these giant tortoises when we hike the trails of Santa Fe!
