Santa Fe & South Plaza Islands
Today we visited 2 islands. We started the day at Santa Fe Island with an AM tender tour of the shoreline where hundreds of seals swam near the shore and right around our tender. Others just lounged on the rocks.
We also saw a number of birds including Blue-footed Boobies and Lava Heron.
At the end of the excursion we stopped briefly close to a beach where there were seals playing at the shoreline and in the water near the beach. Some of our fellow ship passengers were just completing a walk around the island and were waiting for their tender to pick them up.
After returning to the ship I had just enough time to put on my wetsuit for more snorkeling in the “refreshing” waters along the coast of Santa Fe Island. David had enough snorkeling for the trip so I went out with some of the other brave soles in our group who are crazy enough to jump in 60 degree water. Maybe it was 65 today.
The day was a bit warmer than the previous day and it didn’t feel quite as cold jumping in, or maybe our bodies were just getting used to it.
We swam along the coast inside a cove where seals swam all around us. We then swam across the cove to an area where we saw a number of sea turtles. By the time we returned to the tender, the water didn’t feel bad at all.
After a quick hot shower and change of clothes we headed to the top deck for a casual lunch with most of our group.
There was an hour or so after lunch to get ready for the afternoon activities. This trip is not for someone looking for a leisurely vacation.
I joined half of our group for a tour of the ship’s bridge where we learned a lot about how the ship is controlled and how things are monitored. Captain Patricio was on the bridge to greet us.
After the tour we had just enough time to head to our last tour of the day on the small island of South Plaza. We elected to do the short walk on this island which turned out great. The island is very rocky and aired with cacti growing from the shore up to a cliff that marks the other side of the island.
Along the walk up to the cliff we saw a swallow-tail gull nesting her egg, and on the way back one with a baby chick, and another mature baby who no longer needed its mother standing guard, Along the path we also saw hundreds of other pairs of adult gulls. These birds mate for life and most of them could be observed in pairs.
During our walk up to the cliff and back to the tender we also saw a number of land iguanas lava lizards and finches..
At the end of the walk I think everyone was ready for a little rest. We all met at 7PM in the lounge for the talk about the following day’s activities and then headed to the top deck for an alfresco dinner.
At the end of our dinner, Marvie, one of the ship’s naturalists joined us for dessert and then pointed out some of the star constellations with his large laser pointer. The Southern cross was below the horizon so we could not see it but we could see the Milky Way as well as thousands of other stars. We stayed on deck afterwards and went to the top deck where we just gazed at the sky..In this photo, what looks like a cloud is the Milky Way Gallexy..
It was a great end to a long but fun day.