Thursday 29 May 2008 - Cerro Dragon, Santa Cruz

Our first landing was at a place called Cerro Dragon on the North West coast of Sant Cruz.

This place is so named because it is populated by a large number of land iguanas. However, there weren't many to be seen on this trip! We saw their dens and a great many wasps, one of which stung John and a very unhappy young lady in our group!

My highlight for this outing was seeing my first Marine Iguana.
These pre-historic looking animals really captured my imagination. They spend the mornings absorbing the warmth of the sun through their jet black scales then foraging for sub-marine algae the rest of the day. These little creatures have evolved the ability to dive under water in search of coastal algae which is their sole source of food. Changing ocean temperatures and tidal fluctations which affect the growth of the algae as well as oil spills have had dramatic impact on marine igauana populations in the last 10 years.

The landscape on this part of the island reminded us very much of the bushland of Australia. Hot and dry at this time of the year and the soild bright red, we could easily have been in Central Australia.

After a morning here, we re-joined our vessel and headed to our next site of interest, Rabida Island.