Plaza Sur (Take 2) & Santa Fe

This post is part of a series called Galapagos Islands & Quito

For some of us this day was the 2nd landing on South Plaza (due to the schedule change) but that didn’t stop me from taking pictures!

Earlier in the week the guides had told us that, much like a diver uses a dive belt and weights, the larger sea lions swallow rocks to weight them down and allow them to dive deeper. (They can dive up to 500 or 600 feet!) Once back on land they regurgitate them. I’ve googled this, and, although sea lions do eat rocks, everything I’ve found says the scientists don’t know why. Different theories are that they eat them by accident or that the rocks aid in digestion. No mention of the diving theory. Who knows? It does make sense…

Regardless of why, we did find proof that they do eat them. The photo below shows fish scales and bones along with 4 small rounded rocks; all regurgitated by a sea lion. These rocks are smooth and completely unlike the volcanic rocks found on the island.

Sea lion pups are fed by their mother’s for up to 3 years. This mom had a little one and a “toddler” still feeding.

I think this is a Common Egret…

A Blue Footed Boobie perched on the cliff

And, of course the iguanas. It may have been the early morning light, but the iguanas and the sesuvium seemed much more colourful this time

In the afternoon we headed to Santa Fe Island to snorkel and do a landing. The snorkeling was in a protected cove and we saw the usual suspects, but this time I used the flash.

We saw puffer fish almost every time we snorkeled, this is the first decent picture I managed to get of one…

This next photo isn’t the best, but I had to include it just to show the size of the Spotted Eagle Ray

This is a Marbled Ray, commonly seen on the sandy bottom

I think this sea turtle was having an afternoon nap…

There’s a fairly large sea lion colony on Santa Fe, so lot’s of babies. They’re so adorable as they wait for mom to come home…

They look at you with their big sad eyes and when they cry for mom it breaks your heart

The cactus are larger here; it is believed that they evolved to be taller to protect themselves from the iguanas and the giant tortoises that used to roam here.