South Plaza and Santa Fe Islands
We had only a short distance to travel last night and so were peacefully anchored until the wee hours in Academy Bay, Santa Cruz. By first light we had navigated up the coast of this large centrally located island and were anchored beside the Islas Plazas: North and South Plaza Islands, two tiny uplifted islets. South Plaza has a marked trail but this month it is closed to visitors because the National Park Service is in the midst of an intensive rat eradication program. Pellets of mammalian specific poison has been scattered by helicopter and about 40 land iguanas have been moved to the Charles Darwin Research Station for safe keeping while the rats are being killed.
So today we took a long and leisurely panga ride along the protected shores of both the North and South Plaza Islands and we were delighted with the variety of wildlife we saw! We spied whimbrels and striated herons catching crabs; a frigate snatched the crab from the heron and flew off with his stolen prize. There were many of the elegant swallow-tailed gulls resting and preening on the exposed rocks after a night’s feeding. These are the only nocturnal gulls in the world and, with their color-coordinated red eye rings and red legs and feet, they are also one of the most beautiful. A blue-footed stood as if on display, wings spread and feet glowing, as it perched on the damp black lava rocks. Huge boisterous male sea lions patrolled their territories and young pups nursed and swam in the shallow waters between the islets. A large number of Galapagos sea lions reside here in the Plaza Islands and they were plenty active this morning!
Naturalist and photo instructor Aura Banda gave us an enlightening talk about the human history of Galapagos and then we enjoyed a hearty lunch followed by a siesta while the ship navigated south to Santa Fe Island. In the afternoon we had kayaking and snorkeling options and both were quite successful. The snorkelers saw dozens of species of fish, some in large schools, plus a couple of sharks, rays and sea turtles. The kayakers paddled along, pushed by a brisk breeze and disappeared from view around the island.
In the cool gray late afternoon two groups of long hikers went in for a wet landing with Walter and Giancarlo and Aura took the short hiking group. Our good luck continued and everyone who went out saw several individual Santa Fe land iguanas! These large reptiles are found on this island only, in all the world. They are paler and have less pronounced spines along their crest than the other land iguanas of Galapagos. The walk was quite rocky but everyone had a great afternoon.
As we motored back to the ship we passed white-tipped reef sharks, sea turtles and eagle rays in the shallows of the beautiful turquoise bay. Dusk was upon us as we contentedly returned to our comfortable “home” – the good ship National Geographic Islander.
