Dragon Hill (Cerro Dragon) Santa Cruz

First day of a 5-day/4-night cruise in the Galapagos. I must admit that it is when I read the Frommer's guidebook chapter about Ecuador that I realized that the famous islands were part of this country! Originally they seemed totally out of reach: the only way to get there is by plane, and there is no way to bring our dogs in the national park. …

... about dehydration.  Sun screen is a must here as throughout Ecuador. We immediately set sail for the north shore of Santa Cruz island to Dragon Hill, which is accessible only by sea.  We had a "wet landing" and walked to a hypersalinic lagoon ...

... 3 of us switch to Coral 2 (Brad, Julie). New passengers join us. Turns out that this boat has been sailing less than a mo. Travel nearby to Dragon Hill (Santa Cruz). Saw huge land iguanas with bright yellow scales - 6' long. Flamingo up very ...

... a morning hike and saw puffer fish swimming around our boat, with shoals of tiny fish glinting in the sun. On the way to Dragon Hill, our first destination, we saw a marine iguana swimming by as we got into our dinghy or ´Panga´. This time, we saw ...

... the bell rang to come to the table for a sensational breakfast. After breakfast we jumped aboard the dingly and went to Dragon Hill for a dry landing to see Marine Iguanas, Land Iguanas in their natural environemnt and well as birds and the vegetation. ...

... west side of Santa Cruz Island. Our morning excursion is a "somewhat" dry landing and then walk to the top of Cerro Dragon or Dragon Hill. The landing consists of a hunk of black volcanic rock with some wood posts. Right! Every day a new challenge. Our ...

... more comfortable and spacious than I thought was possible on a boat. The afternoon's activity is a visit of "Dragon Hill" on Santa Cruz island. Animals spotted include land iguanas of various shapes, sizes and colors, beautiful flamingos, lots of birds, ...

... to have a quick nap lol. Snorkelling, we saw a turtle again, many fishes and start fish’s. In the afternoon we hiked up Dragon Hill which is known for land iguanas. We were lucky as we saw three in the wild. They were orange and yellow in colour ...

... hat. lots to be seen (as my photos will show when i get a chance to upload them... very slow internet here!). so dragon hill we saw various land iguanas, sea iguanas and pink flamingos! wow! amazing to see these endemic creatures in their natural ...

... , and six other Americans – just 18 of us total. Everyone seems very pleasant. After a two hour sail, we landed on Dragon Hill, Santa Cruz island. It was a dry landing on lava rocks. We had a rocky, arid, bush-covered trail around the cove to view ...

... . Once on board and welcomed with food and drink (that was again typical) we cruised along the north coast of Santa Cruz Island to Dragon Hill where we went ashore to check out the land iguanas and the pink flamingos. Next morning found us anchored off ...