Galapagos Tour - Day 2

Saturday, May 31
The day started off with a 5am cruise to Plaza Sur, a tiny island just off the east coast of Santa Cruz. We had breakfast at 7am and then headed on to the island. We were greeted by what has locally been dubbed the "Welcoming Committee", which consists of about 30 sea lion pubs and their mothers. It was as if they were trying to impress us as we pull the dingy up to the makeshift rocky landing, playfully swimming all around the boat and wrestling with one another. We stepped onto the island and had to literally walk around sun bathing sea lions and marine iguanas. From the docking area, we walked up the coast looking at tons of sea lions, lava lizards, marine iguanas, and land iguanas. Plaza Sur is the only place in the Galapagos Islands where the marine iguanas inter breed with land iguanas due to their close proximity. We then made our made to the far side of the island where a group of bachelor sea lions had made a home on top of the cliffs over looking the Pacific Ocean...along with hundreds of frigate birds and swallow tailed gulls. Here I also got my first glimpse of a blue-footed boobie. As we were leaving the island, the "Welcoming Committee" came out again in full force. Twenty or so sea lion pups followed our dingy around for a few minutes doing their best imitation of dolphins.

Once back on board the Friendship, we headed to Isla Santa Fe for lunch and more exploring. Santa Fe is just off the southeast coast of Santa Cruz. After lunch, and before heading onto the island for some hiking, we needed a water break so a couple of us climbed up to the top deck and did our best to impress one another with dives and flips from the boat. Once on Santa Fe, we saw hundreds of sea lions, lava lizards, Darwin finches, mocking birds, and a forest of Opuntia cacti. We were hoping to spot some land iguanas that can only be found on Santa Fe, but had no luck. The mocking birds were incredibly fearless...I would never had imagined a bird would dare get this close to humans on purpose, yet there they were, coming right up to us and chirping in hopes of getting into our water bottles or finding a scrap of food. After about an hour of hiking we got to jump in the water for some much needed cooling off and another chance to snorkel. Here I saw my first Galapagos sea turtle as well as more eagle rays and thousands of fish, most of which were clumped together in schools so large and dense it seemed like I would never pass through.

We spent our second night on the boat on the move...a 6 hour trip from Santa Fe to Española...that was not for the weak of stomach. I'm not sure whether it was the boat or the sea, but it was a fight to stand upright or remain on the top bunk for much of the night.