Our first stop today was at Plazas, two very close and flat islands that have been pushed up from the ocean floor and are still continuing to rise (we think at about 1.5 metres annually but that sounds a lot). They are covered with scrubby vegetation and patches of opuntia cactus forest, ideal habitat it seems for land iguanas. These ancient-looking creatures eat cactus and wander about with knowing smiles on their faces. It's a hard life but someone has to do it.





En-route to our next stop we stopped for snorkelling from the boat. As we made our way through the water, a large black spotted eagle ray swam past us much more gracefully than we could ever manage. We then hovered over a huge shoal of circling black striped salemas whilst black tipped sharks kept swimming over and amongst them.  It was quite mesmerising. We returned to the boat to make our way to Santa Fe Island.

We landed on the beach at Santa Fe, where the shore was lined by mother and baby sealions slumped on the sand. We watched as one little guy worked its way along the whole line crying out and sniffing the others as it went, presumably trying to find its mum. Sally Lightfoot crabs, in deep shades of orange with spotty patterns on their shells, cover the rocks here as they do virtually everywhere on the islands.

We walked through the forest of well-established opuntia cactus trees that is the home to the Santa Fe iguana (as opposed to the ordinary Galapapos iguana). This is another example where two distinct species have developed on different islands. Santa Fe iguanas tend to be lighter in colour. However in evolution things never really stay still; there is now evidence of some interbreeding betweeen these land iguanas and marine iguanas. Apparently hybrids have been found that conform to neither species but are likely to have been infertile (like mules).
Unfortunately we didn’t find them, as we would love to have sent you a photo of the spotted iguana that the guides have named Weirdo (it’s true!).

Later that day we arrived at San Cristobal Island and had an evening on land in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno. Everywhere we’ve been we’ve seen sealions and had commented that they were as common as dogs are everywhere else in South America. We were amused, therefore, to find them slumped out on the pavements, steps and benches in this small town. The down side of lots of sea lions is lots of sea lion poo and we can now identify sea lions, before we ever see them, by the aroma on the breeze.