Cerro Dragon & Eden Islet
Today we explored the northwestern side of Santa Cruz Island. We had a dry landing at Cerro Dragon, where we planned to search for land iguanas. Approaching the shoreline, we were welcomed with many dramatic landscapes: from the shore to a lagoon, to a rocky trail and finally, volcanic sand. As we headed further into the island, the colors soon changed, from the green coastline to the suddenly very pale arid zone; from mangroves to Palo Santo trees. Suddenly our brightly colored land iguana males appeared, ready to mate or fight, displaying imposing and impressive behavior, and marking the beginning of their breeding season.
Once the natural habitat of the land iguanas was explored, our next adventure led us to enter the underwater world around Guy Fawkes Islets, by snorkeling in these rich waters. Today’s water temperature was 79 F, with calm and extremely clear waters; colorful fishes and invertebrates make this place a unique underwater realm.
In the afternoon we navigated toward Eden Islet, where we had a Zodiac ride around this very interesting geological feature. Many shore birds were spotted, including blue-footed boobies and great blue herons. We also saw marine iguanas, crabs and our ever-present friends, the sea lions.
A bit later we circumnavigated Daphne Major. This island is a very interesting and famous place among geologists, biologists, historians, and researchers; it is here that scientists have been studying the Darwin finches for more than 40 years. Today we saw researchers Peter and Rosemary Grant here on Daphne Major.
The Galápagos has a mystical thrill for all of us, and certainly met all our expectations today.
