We are in the central part of the Galápagos Archipelago. It has been a beautiful trip so far and we are having fun learning and discovering a number of new things!
Early this morning we anchored near South Plaza Island. It is a small island and it is teeming with beautiful life forms of all kinds. The first impression as you approach South Plaza are the sea lion colonies. Once we landed we found land iguanas gathered underneath the cactus forest. This island is also a breeding colony of swallow-tailed gulls, tropicbirds, Galápagos shear waters and many others. They all nest on the rocky southern cliffs.
In the afternoon we anchored on the north side of Santa Fe Island. Here we explored the island from kayaks and with snorkeling gear. We had a lot of fun at the snorkeling site because we snorkeled with sea lions, stingrays and sea turtles! There were many more fish species all around. The most common ones are the yellow tailed razors and schools of black striped salemas.
At the end of an energetic and rewarding snorkeling outing we landed on Santa Fe. The golden beach with a large colony of sea lions was delightful. We also explored the forest which has many plant species, most of them with yellow flowers, including the cactuses. This island is home to the endemic Santa Fe land iguana. Unlike South Plaza, which has a large population of land iguanas found everywhere, here on Santa Fe we had to search for them. As we explored the forest we had cool sighting of this mysterious land iguana. This reptile is the icon of the island and we got to see it!
It was an amazing day!
