Santa Cruz Island
This morning we had an interesting walk that began on the lava rocks and white sand beaches of northwestern Santa Cruz Island and headed inland to an old eroded volcanic hill aptly named after the land iguanas that are found there, Dragon Hill or Cerro Dragon. We found several of these large yellow reptiles and learned that in years past feral dogs had been a serious threat to these fearless creatures. Like so many species is these islands, having evolved here in Galápagos in the absence of predators, they have lost their fear and wariness. We were able to approach them closely to get some good photos.
We felt the full force of the tropical sun today; after all, this is the hot season in the islands, and so a quick swim from the ship was welcome and delightful following the hike. We wiggled into our wetsuits, grabbed our snorkel equipment, boarded the Zodiacs and took a long ride across the bay to some off shore tuff cones, the Guy Fawkes Islets, where we had an amazing snorkeling outing among dozens of species of fish, turtles, sea lions and sharks.
As soon as we had all returned to the ship, Captain Pablo Garces had our boson haul up the anchor and we navigated towards the channel between the islands of Santa Cruz and Baltra. We travelled in to the dock that the locals use to cross by barge from Santa Cruz to the airport at Baltra. Buses were waiting to take us on a drive into the lush green highlands. Our naturalists described the various vegetation zones that we crossed through; the most unique being the Scalesia zone at the highest point along the road. Scalesia is an endemic genus of small tree that is related to the daisies and is found nowhere else on earth.
Next on our agenda was a quarter mile walk inside a lava tube! The afternoon was hot, the lava tube slightly cooler, and it was an unusual experience to hike along underground. We climbed wooden steps up and out of the tube and had drinks and fruit at a rural restaurant. Then we drove down towards the National Park tortoise reserve to search for the wild tortoises that move around at will between the reserve and the farm lands. We found a dozen or more, and enjoyed observing and photographing these ancient giants. Some of them were feeding, some were resting, others were soaking in a pool of stagnant water and one huge male was mating nosily with a much smaller female.
As the sun set and turned the clouds to orange and spread a rosy glow 360º around the horizon we sped back in our Zodiacs to the ship for our evening briefing and cocktails before dinner and bed.
