South Plaza

We cruised overnight to South Plaza island for a walk amongst the iguanas. South Plaza is one of the smallest islands with a visitor site and is formed from an uplifted seabed. The iguanas are amongst the smallest in the islands. There are about 1000 sea-lions on the island, and it's also home to a "pig-weed" type plant, the succulent Sesuvium, which ranges from a bright green to yellow red colour depending upon the season. There are also some pretty interesting "prickly pear" type cactus plants - Cactus Opuntia which is the food choice of the vegan iguanas.

The afternoon was spent in the water swimming with seals and turtles on the Isla Santa Fe in a place called Barrington Bay. The island is one of the oldest in the Galapagos, over 4.5 million years. It is also home to the Santa Fe land iguana (a unique species!). It was also visited by Charles Darwin and named after the Admiral Barrington. The water was perfect and the seals and turtles were behaving perfectly for a thousand photos- a couple of which are below! We returned to the ship and then revisited the island for a walk to find the iguana and lucked upon a Galapagos hawk. Tonight we move to San Cristobel, to check out some more giant turtles. (BTW - That's me swimming with turtles below!)