Santa Cruz & Chinese Hat Islands
A warm breeze welcomed us at the northwestern side of Santa Cruz Island; Dragon Hill is home to some of the last land iguanas living in the wild from perhaps hundreds that once used to roam all around the arid areas of the island. They have been subject of predation by rats, cats, and dogs – their habitats destroyed by donkeys and goats. Park rangers took some of the adult land iguanas to the Charles Darwin Research Center in order to make tem reproduce and once the young iguanas are big enough, they are repatriated to this area again.
A trail leads us through a Palo Santo forest; a sandalwood-like tree whose leaves are absent now during our dry season; giant prickly-pear cacti and many more native and endemic plants were found also along the way.
Suddenly the harsh landscape is illuminated with the bright pink color of a greater flamingo filtering the organic ooze in one of the brackish lagoons formed by the full moon tides. An entire flock of blue-footed boobies covered the sky in front of our eyes leaving splashes of water here and there after diving for fish like graceful kamikazes.
The National Geographic Polaris set sail to a very small volcano known as Chinese Hat, the shape of almost all volcanoes in the Galápagos, surrounded by small, eroded cinder cones, and very fresh lava flows. We had the chance to see the beautiful and peaceful turquoise waters of the area while snorkeling and kayaking. For company we had Galápagos sea lions and the cute Galápagos penguins which is the third smallest penguin in the world and the only one able to survive at the equator.
It has certainly been another wonderful day in paradise, never to be forgotten.
