Two of the best places to observe land iguanas in their natural habitat are South Plaza and Santa Fe Islands. South Plaza was formed by lava streaming up from the bottom of the ocean, while on the other hand, Santa Fe geologically is one of the oldest islands where volcanic rocks of about 4 million years old have been found.
Early in the morning and with a sunny morning, we headed Zodiacs to visit South Plaza Island, which is located at the Northeast of Santa Cruz. Despite South Plaza being small, it is home to a large number marine and land iguanas. Just a few meters from the landing jetty, we observed many of them warming their bodies on the rocks, making their nests or feeding on cactus, while along the shallows a great number of playful sea lions jumped and swam under the attentive sight of a big male. Walking along the flat rocks, we arrived to the steep banks where we observed a great number of birds such as red-billed tropicbirds, swallow-tailed gulls, shearwaters, Nazca and blue-footed boobies. Probably the most exciting part of the visit was when we observed two big Galápagos sharks swimming close to the surface, along the islets.
After a refreshing swimming off National Geographic Islander, we headed to Santa Fe, our next destination in the afternoon. We passed by Gordon Rocks, observing one of the best scuba diving sites of the islands. Its old tuff formation and size impressed us a lot. As soon we arrived at Santa Fe, our guests enjoyed an exciting snorkeling and kayaking outing along the shore, observing white-tipped reef sharks, sea turtles, stingrays, and a large number of colorful fish. After snorkeling we headed to the landing beach to observe the enigmatic Santa Fe land iguana. With its paler color, this specie of iguana is endemic to this island; we observe some of them resting on the rocks basking their bodies with the last beams of sun of the day. Walking inland the landscape changed dramatically. We observed a great number of giant cactus and palo santo trees along the cliffs while in the air finches and Galápagos hawks were the delight of our guests. It was almost six o’clock when we headed back to the Islander, leaving behind another beautiful day in this natural paradise called Galápagos.
