South Plaza Island
We were woken up at sunrise (around 6am) for our morning excursion to South Plaza Island. As we arrived, we could see a few seal “nurseries” – small sea lions playing and frolicking in the shallow waters waiting for their mothers to return with food. A big sea lion, clearly the bull, was guarding the nurseries and made sure a) the pups didn’t stray too far from the playground, or b) the crabs didn’t get too close! It was wonderful to watch them play!
We were still watching the sea lions at play when a land iguana quietly made its way across the path. Then another, and another! There were hundreds of them! In fact, their numbers have increased so rapidly, due to having no natural predators, they are dangerously close to running out of food (cactuses). The park has had to step in and has planted about 50 small cactuses to provide food for the next few years.
The most amazing thing about the Galapagos is that there are animals everywhere. It is almost like stepping into a dark room and your eyes slowly getting accustomed to the dark. At first you cannot see much, then you start seeing things and before you know it the room is full of creatures. And because they have no fear of people, they tend not to get out of the way so you have to watch your every step! You could be admiring a frigate bird one moment, only to turn around and see an iguana in the path or notice a gull on the rock to your right.
The Swallow-tailed gulls were beautiful, with bright red circles around their eyes. It is unique in being the only nocturnal gull in the world. The large eye is thought to be an adaptation which helps to enhance their night vision.
After breakfast it was snorkelling time. We were really excited about the snorkelling as you read so much about the amazing marine life in the Galapagos. They handed out shorties, fins and masks and we were ready. But not before Derek and I had to jump off the boat into the turqoise waters below… obviously. It was an 8m jump but it looked much higher when standing at the top! I made Derek go first and when he made it out alive I jumped. It was thrilling!
The snorkelling was great; we saw sea lions, rays, loads and loads of colourful reef fish and a green sea turtle. The water was lovely and warm and it was such a pleasure swimming with all these wild animals.
During the early afternoon we decided to take one of the kayaks and explore the island reefs. We headed for a group of sea lions and within seconds of spotting us they came over and were very curious and intrigued by this big orange thing. Some of the younger sea lions were extremely playful, with the male making an appearance every now and again, just making sure we knew who was in charge… One of the younger ones got behind the kayak and it seemed as if he wanted to push it towards their playground. It was an amazing time in the water.
Sante Fe Island
This afternoon’s hike was on Sante Fe Island. Our dingies dropped us off in the middle of a group of sea lions just lazing around in the sun and the young ones playing with each other.
This island has some of the oldest and tallest cactus in the Galapagos, which also attracted quite a few land iguanas who are after its juicy leaves. One of the cactuses was around 400 years old and a patient iguana was sitting in its shade waiting for one of the leaves to fall off so it could quench its thirst for the next couple of weeks.
We took our time walking back and enjoyed seeing more sea lions, iguanas, lava lizards and birds.
Back on the boat, Derek and I watched the sunset from the upper deck. A frigate bird was following our boat, gracefully gliding through the air. He eventually perched on the top of the radar and sat there as if scouting the horizon for something. Derek convinced me to get the camera, which I reluctantly did as both of us were lazy. In hindsight, this was one of the best decisions I made.
After taking a few pictures of the frigate bird, I saw some movement out of the corner of my eye. A school of bottlenose dolphins!! They were riding the bow waves; swimming and jumping high out of the water and putting on the most incredible show. The captain kindly circled a couple of times so they stayed with us for at least 10 minutes and all the while the sun was setting in the background. It was, without a doubt, one of my favourite moments of our whole trip so far. I had never seen dolphins out in the open before so this was just magical.
Love the dolphin pics! Stunning!