Cerro dragon is located on the north-western shore of Santa Cruz Island; due to the lack of humidity this side of the island permanently remains arid throughout the year. The southern trade winds blow from south south-east to the north-west so the southern parts of the islands get the moister carried out by these winds giving every island an interesting contrast of wet and lush on the south and dry and grey on the north.
The National Geographic Endeavour anchors in the very calm waters that surround the northern coast of Santa Cruz Island, our guests quickly after breakfast prepare for an exciting hike at Dragon Hill, named after the Galapagos dragons or as we know them commonly land iguanas (Conolopus subcristatus). We had dry landing on an old lava flow, followed by a sandy trail among tall giant prickly-pear cacti forest, as we walked along the shore we could observed several marine iguanas warming up to prepare for the first dive of the day, sally light-foot crabs and small waders were also observed.
We entered the deciduous Palo Santo forest and Darwin finches started to show up and mockingbirds followed them, we approached the hill at which foot land iguanas live, it seemed as though they had drilled the ground every 10 feet, those were the land iguana burrows in which they rest and insulate themselves at night. After climbing the hill we had a spectacular view of the nearby islets and big islands at the distance.
We came back to the ship and switch our hiking shoes for fins and sun-glasses for snorkel masks, we were ready to go snorkeling at Guy Fawkes islet, it was an incredible snorkel with tropical fish, sea lions and even a penguin.
Its lunch time and we were indulged by the galley staff with a delicious Ecuadorean buffet, after lunch we weighted anchors and started our navigation searching for seabirds and cetaceans. We had several activities on board such as photography talks and Oceanography. We ended a fantastic day with a circumnavigation to Daphne Major and wine tasting.
