Our Travel Blog: South Plaza Island and Santa Cruz Island

Friday, February 8, 2019

In the morning, we were at South Plaza Island (7 am to 11 am). The Plaza Islands are twin islands off Santa Cruz Island. North Plaza Island is closed to visitors, apparently because they have a rat problem. South Plaza Island is about a km off the coast of Santa Cruz, and is one of the preferred visitor sites. The whole island has an area of 0.13 sq km. About 1½ km long and 250 m wide – tiny!

imagecredit:https://animalcorner.co.uk/south-plaza-island/

The island was born during a geological uplift of the sea floor and it tilts to the north, with cliffs on the southern coast.

We took the "long walk" option (about 2 hours). There is a circular trail that leads to a 25 m (82 ft) high cliff.

There is a "forest" of large prickly pear cactus, as tall as trees.

There were lots of tiny lava lizards, and the bigger land iguanas:

Since the land iguanas eat the cactus, the Galapagos National Park is making an effort to plant and protect young cactus. Can you see the red cage?

A lot of the island is covered in Sesuvium (Carpetweed), a succulent plant species. It is yellowish green in the wet season and red in the dry season.

On this island you can find Swallow-tailed Gulls, the only nocturnal gulls in the world. We watched as a pair mated, it took 7 tries. They mate for life. They lay a single egg in gravel:

There is a large colony of sea lions. It was so hot out that we were jealous of them frolicking in the surf. This is our landing site:

There are hybrid iguanas that are a mix of male marine iguanas and female land iguanas. Our naturalist said the scientific name for them was "Weirdos". Unfortunately, we did not see any weirdos besides fellow passengers. And ourselves.

One of the ladies this morning fell while getting off the zodiac. She was looking at her phone. We have been told so many times to look where we are going. She fell and hit her head and was bleeding a lot. There was talk of helicoptering her to the mainland, but she just got stitched up and wants to continue the cruise.

After lunch, Frankie treated herself to a massage. But she forgot the cruise ship policy of greasing you up better than a Butterball turkey. Shower #2.

In the afternoon, we were on Santa Cruz Island (3 pm to 9 pm). Santa Cruz is the second largest island at 986 sq km, and is very central to all the islands. Elevation is 2835 feet (864 m). Santa Cruz means “Holy Cross” in Spanish. It is also called Indefatigable by the English. Santa Cruz is actually a large, dormant volcano. One of the lava tunnels you can walk through is over 6500 feet (1981 m) long.

It is one of the populated islands, with 12,000 residents. They all have to live on 3% of the island, since the other 97% is national park. Some tourists stay on Santa Cruz and take day trips to other islands, instead of booking a ship like we did. That would be cheaper, but the day trips involve long, choppy boat rides, little time on the islands themselves, and no access to the farther islands.

Image result for santa cruz island galapagos map vacations to go

imagecredit:https://www.vacationstogo.com/cruise_port/Santa_Cruz__Galapagos_Islands__Ecuador.cfm

Our stop this afternoon was at Dragon Hill (Cerro Dragon), on the northwest coast of Santa Cruz. The name comes from its population of land iguanas. This site has a direct relationship with the Galapagos National Park and Charles Darwin Foundation conservation program. In 1975, feral dogs wiped out the population of land iguanas. The program moved all the iguanas to a different islet called Venecia, but they would not breed there. So they brought soil from the iguana's home island and then they started to breed. After several years, the feral dogs were eliminated, and they were successful in bringing land iguanas back to the area. Every 3 years or so, they are still bringing iguanas back from Venecia.

There are 2 small brackish lagoons, we did not see flamingos today.

The trail has a "forest" of cactus

and a “white forest” of Palo Santo trees (incense trees). The name Palo Santo means “Holy Wood” for its mystical qualities.

A lot of people are tired and opted out of the walks today, but it seems the same group of us always want to take the long walk option.

This island is full of large land iguanas, probably the largest we have seen. There is a lot of vegetation here for them to eat.

Victoria our naturalist had just finished telling us how all the goats were eradicated because they are not endemic and they destroy the habitat of the iguanas. When lo and behold, a baby goat appeared on our path and danced and pranced for us. Unfortunately for him, Victoria has to report him to the national park.

This is at the top of Dragon Hill. If you are wondering why we are always wearing different clothes, we have to change a lot because of the heat and sweat. Today was over 30C. It was supposed to be an El Nino year, but that does not seem to be happening. When we left for this trip, the forecast said we were supposed to have rain every day. Hmmm, maybe tomorrow???

Poor Laurie tripped over a rock, and when she put her hand up to steady herself, she was on the wrong end of a cactus. So she had to see the doctor when she got back on board the ship.

When we got back, it was shower #3, and then dinner tonight was a BBQ for everyone on deck. Laurie and John had a table reserved for us to watch the sunset. This did not look like your average BBQ. All the tables were fancied up.