Santa Fe & South Plaza Islands

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Geo: -0.821086, -90.0617

Last night we were entertained watching sea lions hunting fish that were attracted to the ship's lights. The fish and their hunters were incredibly agile and speedy. Hanzel said the sea lions try to panic the fish to crash into the hull and stun themselves, and we did see a flying fish do just that.

This morning was Santa Fe Island and land iguanas. Then snorkelling again, but we passed and lounged around on the top deck.

South Plaza is a little sliver of land just east of Santa Cruz Island. The apparently famous scuba diving location, Gordon Rocks, is also nearby. Interesting landscape, sea lions and iguanas of both varieties.

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Photos

Cactus and rocks
Typical environment on the coast of Sante Fe Island.

Dinosaur
Santa Fe iguanas grow up to 7kg and live for 70 years. On Isabella Island they can grow to 12-13kg and 1500mm in length.

Feeding
This smaller female was breakfasting on a cactus pad. Robyn says she can see where the inspiration for the Godzilla monster came from.

On South Plaza Island
Gordon Rocks just visible behind the foreground land mass. The vegetation was greens and yellow/reds. Inspiration for the land iguanas colouration.

More iguanas
The adult males are the colourful ones. Like sea lions, they preside over a family of females and young.

Frigate birds
These have a wingspan of 2m and several of them just circled the ship all the time it was moving. They settled on the sun roof and on the radar gear. Very impressive when they are only a few metres away. Apparently the males can inflate the red crop under their bill to football size.

Comments

[Michael Paramor]

What a great trip you two! And great photos on the blog. Look fwd to catching up when you're back home and hearing the stories. Safe travels. MFP & Rosie