Early this morning the National Geographic Endeavour II arrived at the northern side of Santa Cruz Island for our morning visit at Cerro Dragon.
We landed on a natural lava “jetty” and then on the trail was a mix of sand, lava, boulders and volcanic ash, as we walked in land we found a family of white cheeked pintail ducks with five chicks that eagerly followed mama around the lagoon looking for food.
Along the trail, we could see many native and endemic plants, like the Palo Santo or sandalwood tree, the Galapagos cotton and the emblematic Opuntia cacti that happen to be the tallest of the archipelago.
Cerro Dragon is known for its population of land iguanas, and as we walked inland, we found 10 large and colorful males and three females, all of them were very close to the trail so we were able to take great pictures of them.
After the hike we went for a well-deserved snorkeling at Guy Fawkes, here we saw white tip sharks, parrot fish, colorful invertebrates like orange sponges and black coral along the wall of the islet.
In the afternoon, we had a kayaking session, the young explorers learned to drive a Zodiac and the rest of us went to explore the coast of Eden Islet. Among the many species that live along the coast are young sharks, great blue herons, blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas and we were lucky to find a bunch of newly hatched iguanas along the cliffs of Eden Islet.
With these unique images in mind, we are sure that tomorrow will be another exiting day in this unique world.
