Upon waking this morning, we are informed by the captain that they performed a sea rescue during the night. Apparently a very small cruise boat got grounded and we answered the distress call (of course, all of us slept through the whole thing). By the time we head out for our morning excursion, another boat has come to pick them up and take them back to Isle Baltra.
Our first activity of the day is a panga ride to Rabida Island, another ‘wet’ landing. The entire island is bright red due to the high content of iron that has oxidized. As we are unloading our stuff and preparing for the rest of the morning, a very curious juvenile sea lion comes out of the water and starts sniffing peoples toes – ha! We have a nice two hour hike, then split off. Dick. Dale, Drew and Traci are going snorkeling – Abbi and I are doing ‘dry’ snorkeling – aka, the glass bottom boat. We see lots of different schools of fish, several types of star fish and a small white tail shark.
After lunch, Carlos (the Uncruise team leader) gives a fascinating talk about Charles Darwin and the Beagle exploration. There is an afternoon hike planned. Carlos indicates that if you are going to skip anything, this would probably be the one. I elect to stay on the boat and catch up on the blog, everyone else goes on the hike. It’s kind of nice just to chill out for a little while.
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Today started at Rábida, a small island known for the red coloring of its earth. Everything is red! Several small volcanic craters and the high amount of iron in the lava give the island its color. Most of the coastline is rocky except for the beach on which we land.
A few minutes’ walk from the beach is a saltwater lagoon that is a feeding and breeding area for flamingos. Marine iguanas and sea lions are everywhere – some very friendly. Some of us snorkeled off the beach. Beautiful schools of fish along the rocky coast. Some saw penguins again – alas, not I.
In the afternoon we visited Cerro Dragon (Dragon Hill) located on Santa Cruz Island. It’s perfectly named as there is a huge population of the Galapagos land iguanas. We observed a wrestling match between two males – hilarious! Along the trail is another saltwater lagoon and nesting ground for flamingos. The trail winds through a desert-like landscape, passing through cactus forests and Palo Santo trees, ending up at the summit of an extinct volcano with great views.
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