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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This morning, we woke up, grabbed our expedition gear, and embarked on our Zodiacs to go explore Plazas Islet. This place is home to a large colony of sea lions, plenty of land iguanas, marine iguanas, and also nesting swallow-tailed gulls. The islet is covered with the Galapagos carpet weed, which turns red during the dry season, and gives the islet a very exotic touch. We came back on time for a delicious breakfast, and later, we took some of our most adventurous guests to explore the area by Zodiac. During the afternoon, water activities took place on Santa Fe Island, and snorkeling with sea lions was such an incredible sighting for our guests. Later in the afternoon, we disembarked to a large colony of sea lions on the beach, put on our good walking shoes, and went to explore the rest of the trail, where pale land iguanas, mockingbirds, and other species could be observed and photographed. The highlight of the afternoon was for sure a couple of Galapagos hawks that were flying in the area. What a great day!
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.
