Angelito - Mosquera and Dragon

Day two on board was a bit of an early start, up for breakfast at 615 so we can head inland at 7 to catch the sea lions waking up on Mosquera Island, a small sandy outcrop around 100m long. Most of the larger mammals on the Galapagos have no natural predators so they are not scared of humans, allowing us to get very close without them being bothered at all. Some of the younger more inquisitive pups even came over to say hello. Seeing them up close and in their natural habitat is quite amazing, they seem so relaxed and playful without a care in the world. We could get so close that we saw the movement of a baby Sealion still in its mother's belly. We saw a few pups drinking their mothers milk as well. We were also lucky to see some Galapagos Scorpions hiding under a rock trying to get some sleep, they didn't like it too much when they were rudely awaken by a bunch of tourists turning over there rock and pointing cameras in their faces.

Next up was some snorkeling along Seymour Island, another smaller rocky island home to a large colony of Frigate Birds and the Blue Footed Boobies. We saw one of the Male Frigate birds ready to mate, with a huge inflated red balloon extruding from his throat. He didn't get lucky while we were there, he has to keep himself inflated until he finds a partner to build a nest with. From the boat we also saw a Ray doing huge back flips out of the water, apparently to clean itsfelf from parasites.
We donned our wet suits for the snorkeling as the water is a little colder than we're used to. We didn't see any colorful corals but quite a few black tipped reef sharks napping in the sand and a pair of Manta rays going for a swim.

After another hearty lunch we went back on land for a walk around the Cerro Dragon (Dragon Hill), a small hill located in the North of Santa Cruz Island and a very different landscape from what we've seen so far. Heading slightly in land we found ourselves among some dried up lagoons and what looked like desert. The weather here can change dramatically during the day and even from one island to the other, while the morning was windy and overcast, now it was very hot with clear blue skies. So hot that the trees were starting to wither and only the cactus were green, although not flowering. Here we found the land Iguanas, a bit bigger than their sea fearing cousins and also with a bit of color, they scavange bits of the cactus that fall to the ground, if they can mange to get the spikes out of it, a hard life in a harsh environment. After 2 hours walking in the sun we were all ready to head back to the boat to catch a sea breeze.

We had a good dinner on board with a view on a new island to us: Rabida. Very different from the others as it has red sandy beaches. Unfortunately no time to jump of the boat, it is another early night and the boat is doing an overnight navigation, so we are expecting a bumpy night with the engines on full power till moring.Read more