Everything you read about the abundant and unafraid wildlife on the Galápagos Islands is true. I just didn’t really “get it” until our first day when we visited Santa Fe Island. Motoring up to the beach for our first wet landing, we were surrounded by barking, frolicking Galápagos sea lions. They were everywhere—some sleeping on the beach, some sleeping on rocks, some playing in the surf. Most fun was a group of curious pups that swam/waddled up to us to check us out. Clearly, they thought we were the best thing to hit the beach that day.
We didn’t have to hike far before we saw our first land iguanas. Once you spot one and know what to look for, you realize they are everywhere as well. At times we had to walk around them as they lay across the trail unbothered by the group of us. Brightly yellow-orange colored, they are fascinating to watch despite the fact that they (usually) don’t move much. They are simply prehistoric.
Santa Cruz is known for its forests of Opuntia cacti and surrounding turquoise waters. We did our first snorkel here from the beach. Eduardo clearly wanted to see if we could all manage snorkeling or if we would sink and drowned before attempting snorkeling off the pangas in deeper waters. The water was warm and clear. A couple of sea lions swam along with us. Fish were abundant. We all lived.
In the afternoon the boat moved north to South Plaza Island. We walked a trail that took us to a dramatic overlook and watched swallow tailed gulls, yellow-tailed mullets, Audubon shearwaters, brown pelicans, Nazca boobies, and our very first blue-footed boobies. A chorus of birds flew in every direction. Optunia cacti and sesuvium plants carpeted the landscape providing food for land iguanas who make their burrows in the sand seemingly everywhere.
