SantaCruise and North Seymour Island

Just when you think it can’t get any better, you’re blown away by what you experience

Despite being a little tired we elected to do another very full day today. We just didn’t want to miss a moment of this amazing trip. In the morning we did a combination walk and snorkel at Las Baches beach at the north end of Santa Cruise Island, followed by deep water snorkeling in some slightly rough waters, and finally a short tender ride and walk on North Seymour Island.

Our morning walk was across sand and some lava. Walking on dried lava presents some challenges but the hardest thing was keeping the gigantic but harmless flies away from your face and the smaller blood sucking one’s off of you legs. On our walk we were fortunate to see Galapagos flamingos, marine iguanas, Sally Lightfoot crabs, seals, pelicans, sandpipers, swallow tail gulls and countless other birds. There were also a number of interesting cacti.

After our walk along the beach we got to snorkel along the rocks, and then after lunch we did deep water snorkeling in some moderately choppy water. Getting to see the diversity and the huge schools of fish far outweighed the minor inconvenience of a few mouthfuls of salt water. Among the things we saw were huge schools of black striped salema, blue chin parrot fish, bump head parrot fish, rainbow wrasse, king angel fish, rays, reef sharks, and many, many others. The underwater camera I have does not do justice to what we experienced.