Santa Cruz Island
This morning we woke up on the Northern side of Santa Cruz Island to a different landscape. Santa Cruz is the second largest island in the Galápagos with peaks up to three thousand feet high. Strong winds from the southeast bring much humidity to the southern part of the island, but here it is much dryer. We enjoyed a 8am wake up call and took the Zodiacs to the shore in search of sharks and rays that nest and feed in those areas.
Venice is the islet where the National Park has been raising land iguanas since the mid-1970’s. Since then over 300 land iguanas have repatriated and, at the same time, the National Park Service has made great progress eradicating introduced animals in this part of Santa Cruz. In the afternoon we walked around Cerro Dragon to witness the success of the eradication program and to find the land iguanas that live in this area.
This evening we had a barbeque dinner out on the deck and practiced our Salsa and Merengue steps in the lounge.
