South Plazas & Santa Fe Islands, 9/8/2022, National Geographic Islander II
Aboard the
National Geographic Islander II
Galápagos
Today we visited two small but interesting islands: South Plazas on the north part of Santa Cruz and Santa Fe to the east. These islands are home to two different species of iguanas: the Galapagos land iguana and the Santa Fe land iguana. These two islands are also home to two different species of prickly pear cacti, and both have characteristics that make them unique to the places they live. Aside from this, we observed a number of seabirds and a few colonies of the iconic Galapagos sea lions.
Javier grew up on Santa Cruz island where his grandparents first arrived in the 1940´s. Veritable pioneers, his grandparents settled in the highlands where they found a place to raise their children.
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We woke up anchored inside a caldera filled with seawater. We visited two destinations where about a million seabirds live and breed. We also snorkeled and kayaked inside the caldera, the only opportunity of its kind in the Galapagos. We celebrated as we crossed the equatorial line from south to north. Sunset declared the day was over, painting the sky yellow and red. We declared it an extraordinary day of expedition.
Today we started the day with a pre-breakfast activity on Sombrero Chino. We had options to enjoy a photo walk on the island, a sunrise yoga class, or kayaking. Then we headed to the ship to have breakfast and get ready for a Zodiac ride to look for Galapagos penguins along the channel between Sombrero Chino and Santiago. After this, we prepared for snorkeling and swimming with sea lions, sharks, colorful fish, and Galapagos penguins. During the afternoon, we visited Sullivan Bay. We did a lava walk and spotted some pioneer plants. We took many fun pictures of the pahoehoe lava shapes. To end this amazing day, we enjoyed a barbecue dinner as we navigated across the equatorial line.
It’s our first full day in the Galapagos Islands, and we visited Plazas Islet first thing after breakfast. In this place, we encountered countless sea lions sleeping under the equatorial sun, and swallow-tailed gulls resting during the day. The highlight of this island is its population of land iguanas. As we walked farther along the trail, we spotted a land iguana feeding on prickly pear cactus. This is the main source of food during the dry season, and the island is really dry right now. What a great sighting, as this is something we do not get to see every day. We kept walking and arrived at the bachelors’ sea lion colony, where single males were resting. Blue-footed boobies and other seabirds flew above our heads. In the afternoon, we moved the ship to Santa Fe Island, where plenty of playful sea lions were waiting for us to get in the water. Kayaking was offered today, and guests enjoyed paddling alongside sea turtles, rays, and sea lions, of course! Our late afternoon walk took us into the island’s dry forest. The largest prickly pear cactus in the Galapagos can be observed here, along with the island’s unique species of land iguana, the pale iguana. Iguanas and sea lions are plentiful on this unique island, in addition to curious Galapagos doves and an endemic rat. At the end of the walk, the sea lions were there to wave goodbye as we boarded our Zodiacs to go back to National Geographic Islander II .
