Flamingos, Sharks and (more) Iguanas

In the morning, we panga’d over to Rabida Island's red-coloured beach. An hour-plus walk around island taught us about some of the plant-animal interactions. For example, there are a lot of cacti on some of the islands (yes, it’s tropical, but with the volcanic soil, very little water for plants). The prickly pear cacti grow into trees, essentially, and when they are still growing, they produce downward facing spines on their trunks to protect them from iguanas and tortoises that would climb them (or stretch up them?) to eat their fruit and paddles. Once the cactus is mature and established, it sheds those spines, thereby inviting the animals to eat and then spread the cacti seeds. Also, because these are harsh conditions, these prickly pear cacti only put energy into growing very small fruit, not the big red “pears” we see in the American desert areas.

After our hike, we did another snorkel from the beach and saw so many reef fish and some reef sharks (they didn’t care about us).

Finally, we navigated to the north shore of Santa Cruz Island, where we went on shore to explore. We got to watch some flamingos feeding in a brackish water lagoon. Flamingos are filter feeders, with a series of plates in their bills that act like the baleen of whales to strain and capture crustaceans, mollusks, algae and insects. There are only about 400 flamingos in the Galápagos Islands.

Of course we saw more iguanas—the colorful land iguanas, not the smaller, black marine iguanas. Farther along the trail, we came to a lookout with a beautiful view of the bay and the western islands of the Galápagos archipelago.

Although this is considered the rainy season, we have been very fortunate with rainless days (but much humidity!). The seas have been very calm as well.Read more