Page 224 - River cruises

Santa Cruz

We have a 06:30 wake up call this morning, breakfast at 07:00 and into the “Zodiacs” just after 8 for
our tour of Santa Cruz. After a dry landing, our guide gives us the low down on what effects the
weather on the Galapagos Islands, then we walk to a salt water pond where we spot a family of
Marine Iguanas. From there we walk to a salt-water lagoon, where occasionally pink flamingos can
be observed, but alas not today a few indigenous ducks ( very shy, heads under water most of the
time). We continued our walk around the area spotting several Land Iguanas on our way, as well as
some small birds, including a mocking bird feeding her young. We continue on to Dragon Hill, a
nesting site for land iguana’s with lovely views of the bay. Then it’s back to the Zodiacs, and once all
on board the ship continues on to Floreana Island.
After lunch on board we disembark for a wet landing on the bizarre green coloured beach of
Floreana Island. Our naturalist will leads us to a large lagoon, home to one of the biggest flamingo
populations in the Galapagos (sometimes: but not today). We walked over to the other side of the
peninsular to find some Green Turtles - hiding somewhere. So we backtrack to the beach where
snorkellers can swim in the sheltered cove and watch the playful sea lions surfing the gentle waves;
As we reach the crest of a dune near the beach our guide spots a pinky/orange bird - flamingoes - we
take a different track which leads us to the edge of the lagoon right where there are five flamingoes
after a lengthy photo stop we return to the zodiacs and the ship.