August 2, 2018 - Flew to Baltra Island of Galapagos and embarked Santa Cruz II

We got up earlier again to fly to Baltra Island of Galapagos to start our Galapagos expedition on Santa Cruz II. We arrived Baltra Island around 11AM and had to take zodiac (rubber boat, they also referred it as banga) to reach Santa Cruz II docked in the middle of the ocean.  Santa Curz II is one of the larger ships which provide cursing expeditions in Galapagos.

The three decks of Santa Cruz II hosts 90 guests throughout 50 modern cabins. On Santa Cruz II, each expedition will be accompanied by knowledgeable guides. Activities range from daily land expeditions to a host of aquatic activities including ocean kayaking, snorkeling and glass bottom boat.  They divided all guests into different groups with assigned guides. All of us were grouped into the Frigates Group with Eddie as our assigned guide.

In the afternoon, we had our first dry landing to Cerro Dragon (Dragon Hill on Santa Cruz Island) to walk on lava rocks to see marine iguanas, and land iguanas.  The trail in Dragon Hill is one of the longest in Galapagos, wends its way through a desert-like landscape, passing through forests of cactus and fragrant Palo Santo trees. On the way, we spotted many marine iguanas and several land iguanas.  This was our first encounter of Galapagos animals, andt we had a lot of photo opportunities.