This morning by 8:00 a.m. all of our guests had landed at South Plaza Island. Right at the landing site we had a group of about fifteen playful baby sea lions in a tide pool putting on a show. Everybody enjoyed this moment, as these creatures are some of the most adorable on the islands. Our guests also had the chance to observe, for the first time in the wild, an important number of Galapagos land iguanas feeding on cactus. Our naturalists used this opportunity to explain about the natural history of these unique reptiles. As we continued hiking our guests spotted a number of sea birds flying next to the cliff of the island. Some of the guests captured on their cameras red-billed tropicbirds and swallow-tailed gulls in flight. Everybody got back on board by 10:30 a.m. and by 11:00 a.m., rejoined at the lounge of the National Geographic Islander to attend a talk about Galapagos reef fish identification and prepare for the next snorkeling outing.
After a delicious buffet lunch our guests had some time to relax before the water activities started. The first group departing boarded kayaks and went for an expedition along the coast searching for Galapagos sea lions, green sea turtles, and seabirds. The rest of the groups went on a snorkeling outing and encountered a diverse fish fauna. Amongst others, they spotted king angel fish, razor surgeon fish, giant damsel fish, bicolor parrot fish, and diamond sting rays.
For the last part of the afternoon our guests had the opportunity to go on a walk on Santa Fe Island. Once ashore on the beach we found a large group of female Galapagos sea lions nursing their young while the territory was patrolled by the alpha male. As we stepped onto the island and walked throughout an impressive dry forest our guests enjoyed the landscape, which had gigantic cactus trees and palo santo trees. In between this forest we encounter the Santa Fe land Iguana, a species that is only found on this Island. It was about sunset by then, so everybody got back on board.
