Rabida & Cerro Dragon

Every day has been the best day, but Rabida was truly special. After a relatively smooth overnight sail, we woke up to stunning views of the red sea cliffs of Rabida. A lot of the volcanic rock we have seen on the islands has been reddish, but these cliffs were Vermilion Cliffs National Monument red. 

We landed on the aptly named Playa Roja, with its sand the color of wet rust. There were several sea lions there to greet us and they looked genuinely disappointed when we walked into the palo santo forest rather than into the surf. First we passed a small lagoon with a couple of whimbrels, but no flamingos. Then we climbed up onto the peninsula separating the bay where the Fragata was anchored from the red beach. There were finches and mockingbirds all around. We also saw the endemic Galapagos dove. Lava lizards perched on the trailside rocks. At the top we enjoyed a glorious, albeit breezy view. 

Back on the beach we donned our snorkel gear for another early morning plunge.  First we went parallel to the beach away from the peninsula. We got a brief glimpse of an octopus before it wedged itself under a rock. The best thing was the Galapagos garden eels. They dig a burrow in the sandy bottom and then extend their bodies out of it to feed. They tend to live in groups and resemble a field of grasses waving in the current.

We doubled back and worked our way along the rocky shore of the peninsula. Here there were clouds of cardinal fish and black striped selema, by far the densest accumulation we had seen so far. All the parrotfish were here as were all the urchins. We saw some new species as well including the flag cabrillo and the magnificently camouflaged stone scorpion fish. Our sea lion friends came over to play. Many of the sea lions we have encountered have a practice of swimming upside down towards people at eye level and diving at the last second. One of the sea lions here had its own take on this which was opening its mouth just before the dive. Not to anthropomorphize, but I cannot help but think this individual got a thrill out of startling people like that. 

This was already our best snorkel to date given the wealth of species present. It got better still when we swam around the end of the peninsula. The water was rougher here, but still clear. The sandy bottom was covered with the big red spotted sea stars. Under a little rock ledge were 2 white tipped reef sharks taking a nap. One was perhaps 6 feet long, the other about 4. We were so excited to finally see some big sharks!

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Cerro Dragon is a hill on Santa Cruz. It is named for the large numbers of land iguanas living there. We landed in the late afternoon and while we saw many burrows, most of the iguanas were hiding from the fierce equatorial sun. What we did see that was new and interesting were baby land iguanas. These look quite a bit different from their adult counterparts. The body color and patterning looks more like a lava lizard. It is only when you look closely at the face that you can discern that you are seeing an iguana. The other distinguishing characteristic we observed was that they climbed up and perched on the dry scrub. This is something we have not seen the lava lizards do. The baby iguanas climb up there and wait to make a meal of passing insects. 

Near the beach where we landed for our hike around Cerro Dragon was another lagoon. This too was sadly bereft of flamingos, but did host a whimbrel and a couple of ducks. It was too rough here for a second snorkel, so we admired the marine iguanas and Sally Lightfoot crabs and the infinite shades of blue in the sky and on the water.