It is fantastic to spend a whole day on my home Island: Santa Cruz. We started with a visit to a local farm “El Trapiche” where our guests learned about the production of organic coffee, sugar cane, cocoa, bananas and tried their products, a delicious moment! Afterwards we went to “Los Gemelos,” a visitor site located at the highest point of the street with the last and largest scalesia forest on the Island. Then we continued to Rancho El Manzanillo to visit the giant tortoises. There were many tortoises today, it was spectacular. We finished our day visiting the giant tortoise breeding center and the Exhibition Hall of the Charles Darwin Research Station. On Santa Cruz Island, conservation and tourism work hand by hand!
5/6/2025
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National Geographic Islander II
North Seymour and Rabida Islands
At 6:30 in the morning, some guests joined us for an expedition on North Seymour Island, which is slowly losing its green color due to the beginning of the dry season. It is a perfect time of year to see blue-footed booby couples starting to reproduce with the typical courtship displays and a good number of male frigatebirds with their red gular sack inflated. We encountered a good number of healthy land iguanas since they still have a lot of food, thanks to the previous wet season. While navigating to Rabida Island, bottlenose dolphins escorted National Geographic Islander II for at least 45 minutes, and guests had an excellent time watching them. In the afternoon, we snorkeled from the beach with colorful fish and young, playful sea lions who put on a great show. At the end of the day some guests took a walk on the red colored sand and watched American flamingos behind the dune at a saltwater lagoon. Others went kayaking along the coast full of land and sea birds.
