Day 8 – South Plaza, Santa Cruz Islands
With another busy day ahead, I was eager to get started this morning to see what adventures awaited me at Santa Cruz. As soon as we approached the islands we saw sea lions playing in the water, swimming and performing for us as we disembarked.
This island again is different from the others. It felt much more like we were somewhere in the Adriatic. There are stunning, vibrant red weeds all over the place, and bright green cacti in amongst them. There were several areas sectioned off to help enable more cacti can grow - this is done to conserve the seeds, as apparently the iguanas keep eating them.
As well as the scenery, another highlight of this walking tour was when we saw two sea lions; a mother and her pup. The pup wanted to feed so was shouting and nudging the mother, but she didn’t want to and so began to walk away from the little one. Then, when she walked to the sea she ended up giving in to it.
The other remarkable thing was at the top of a large hill. We could see all these birds sawing across as the waves were crashing against the rocks. All of this was happening with the sea and the mountains of Santa Cruz in the distance. It was a remarkable sight!
Day 8 – Dragon Island, Santa Cruz
If you compare Dragon Island, Santa Cruz to South Plaza you will see some differences, mainly in the terrain and the way the landscape appears. To me, it felt like South Plaza was a lot more like an Adriatic island, compared to Dragon Island which seemed more like it belonged to a destination like Mexico. It was quite dusty but seemed similar to a place you’d visit for a sun holiday. I almost felt like rolling out a beach towel and sunbathing on the white, sandy beach.
This island is not one of the optimum ones for wildlife; however, we did see a few iguanas, sea lions, birds, and a whitetip shark. Dragon Island is better known for the natural beauty of its landscape. There’s the volcano overlooking it, the dusty terrain, many different cacti plants, and the odd lake here and there. It was almost like we’d been taken and put into the setting of an old western movie!
| A Galapagos diary: day seven | A Galapagos diary: day nine |
