Galapagos Day 13

With just two whole days left on the Galapagos Cruise, we are making our way from the South of the archipelago (Floreana) towards tomorrow’s destination at the Northern end, Genovesa.  But in between, we stopped at Santa Cruz again this morning to explore the area around Dragon Hill in unusually overcast conditions.  We had hoped to see land iguanas but despite much evidence of their existence we didn’t manage to turn up a single species.  That is a bit of a rarity for our guide Juan, who has consistently delivered on every other landing.  It wasn’t too much of a disappointment though, as we have seen them elsewhere previously on the trip.

Instead, we “made do” with a salt water lagoon that featured more flamingoes and some stilts.  As I’ve given you flamingoes twice already I thought I’d show you the stilt as my main.  By the time we finished the trip 2 hours later, the sun was once again breaking through the clouds and the temperature was increasing back to "normal".

In the extras are a Galapagos Fly Catcher, a (female) Medium Ground Finch (one of Darwin’s famous finches) eating the tiny fruits of a spiny bush, and a Santa Cruz mockingbird (a different species from Saturday's Española Mockingbird).  

By lunchtime we had arrived at our snorkelling destination for the day: Sullivan Bay on Santiago Island. 3pm saw us snorkelling along the coastal reefs looking for Galapagos Penguins, Rays and Sharks - and the ever abundant and colourful little fish. Every evening when we go through the checklist our very knowledgeable guide is able to tell us the names of all these little fish, but there are so many of them, and they change so much between the sexes and as they age, that I have given up even trying to keep track of the vast majority of them.  Instead, I simply enjoy the experience and marvel at the variety.

Finally we finished off the day with a dry landing to explore the lava flows which are relatively fresh (dating back to “just” 1897).  There seem to be broadly two types of lava: the “ow ow” type (you definitely don’t want to stand on it or brush against it) and the “rope lava”.  It is this latter type of lava that Sullivan Bay is worth visiting for.

So, its the last full day in the Galapagos tomorrow - I must admit to feeling quite sad about that.  This trip has truly been the adventure of a lifetime.  Still, I’m not coming home yet, there is another chapter still to come, but more on that in a few days.