Dragon Hill, Santa Cruz Island & Guy Fawkes, Sombrero Chino Island
We started our day at the northwestern coast of Santa Cruz, a site named Dragon Hill, a name given to this place due to the numerous land iguanas that once populated this part of the island.
During our exploration, we found eight land iguanas sun basking on the ground. Although land iguanas were our goal, we were gladly surprised by the presence of one greater flamingo in a brackish water lagoon nearby; we also saw a cactus finch pollinating the Opuntia cactus flowers, and that itself made our day! David Silverberg, our National Geographic Expert, gave us all an in situ explanation on the different ecosystems of this particular site. Thanks to this, our guests obtained a deeper understanding to what restoration of an ecosystem means. By the time the hit was increasing, we reached the summit of the hill, enjoying not only the fresh ocean breeze, but the beautiful scenery as well.
Our snorkeling later on turned out to be just great! Galápagos sharks, parrot fishes, sea stars, cup corals, sea sponges, big schools of black striped salemas and creole fishes made our snorkeling a joyful adventure!
There were some guests who wanted to explore the island in a different way and the beach and kayaks sounded like a great idea. Although small, we made our way through the sea lions colony on the beach to have our stretching activity lead by the wellness specialist, while the kayakers were fighting the mild winds and current to experience the dramatic coastline. Lots of fun, some people got wet, some did not, but we all for sure enjoyed our day! What a busy and exciting day!
We started our day at the northwestern coast of Santa Cruz, a site named Dragon Hill, a name given to this place due to the numerous land iguanas that once populated this part of the island.
During our exploration, we found eight land iguanas sun basking on the ground. Although land iguanas were our goal, we were gladly surprised by the presence of one greater flamingo in a brackish water lagoon nearby; we also saw a cactus finch pollinating the Opuntia cactus flowers, and that itself made our day! David Silverberg, our National Geographic Expert, gave us all an in situ explanation on the different ecosystems of this particular site. Thanks to this, our guests obtained a deeper understanding to what restoration of an ecosystem means. By the time the hit was increasing, we reached the summit of the hill, enjoying not only the fresh ocean breeze, but the beautiful scenery as well.
Our snorkeling later on turned out to be just great! Galápagos sharks, parrot fishes, sea stars, cup corals, sea sponges, big schools of black striped salemas and creole fishes made our snorkeling a joyful adventure!
There were some guests who wanted to explore the island in a different way and the beach and kayaks sounded like a great idea. Although small, we made our way through the sea lions colony on the beach to have our stretching activity lead by the wellness specialist, while the kayakers were fighting the mild winds and current to experience the dramatic coastline. Lots of fun, some people got wet, some did not, but we all for sure enjoyed our day! What a busy and exciting day!
