24 March
7AM: Breakfast this morning was a delicious egg quiche that we ate while receiving the day’s briefing.
8AM: South Plazas Island dry landing- this one was interesting! A Galapagos sea lion had made itself quite comfortable, stretched across the concrete landing and presenting us with an obstacle to navigate while making our way from the panga to the island. It didn’t seem to mind us stepping literally right over it as we passed. This island has many marine and land iguanas- a perfect opportunity to collect data for our project!
‘scuse me lil buddy…
10AM: Cruise to Santa Fe Island, and lunch on the way- palometa (fish), rice and fruit. Since the cruise would be a few more hours, it was siesta time.
215PM: Snorkeling off the panga, we observed mostly the same species including yellowtail surgeon, green sea turtle, diamond stingray, and my favorite: moorish idol. We also encountered a group of juvenile sea lions, and the beach master also swam by, between the sea lions and us, and well within arms reach (the photos show they were so close that I couldn’t even fit them in the frame!). There were strong currents, so we held onto the rocks to watch them frolic.
415PM: Santa Fe wet landing. The beach on Santa Fe had a large group of sea lions, and we were free to explore and observe them. A sea lion juvenile was unattended by its mother, and was playing with a rock, manipulating it in its mouth, dropping it, nudging it with its flipper and picking it up again, before laying on the beach upside-down to observe us observing it.
630PM: Dinner, briefing and cruise to Espanola.
SOUTH PLAZAS: 83°F, 77%, partly cloudy, little wind -swallow-tailed gull -marine iguana -land iguana -Galapagos sea lion -Nazca booby -blue footed boobuy -magnificent frigate bird -great frigate bird -red-billed tropicbird -lava lizard
SANTA FE: 82F, 86.4%, mostly cloudy, little wind -moorish idol -Galapagos sea lion -green sea turtle -diamond stingray -yellow tail surgeon fish