The Galapagos-San Cristobal and Santa Fe Islands

On day 4, we stopped off on San Cristobal Island to drop off passengers and pick up new ones who were only doing the other 4 days of the cruise. San Cristobal is one of the 4 inhabited islands and I wasn't really impressed with it. We did drop by Isla Lobos where many sea lions congregate and I spent much of my time watching 2 frisky young male sea lions play. We then snorkeled near the island and encountered a large male sea lion who tried to protect his territory by swimming up to our faces while barring all his teeth. It worked for me, and I screamed quite loudly and swam away. I tried to kick away whenever he swam near me and after awhile, I just wanted to get out of the water. I never knew when he might show up and I felt like I was just waiting to get bitten by him. He instilled a new fear of sea lions I now have.


The next day, we sailed to Santa Fe Island, the only island to find the endemic Santa Fe Iguanas. The iguanas are yellow in color and are oddly attracted to yellow things. If I wore all yellow, they would approach me expecting me to be some sort of food source since they eat anything yellow. Maybe that's how they get their color.


Hawks are the king predator and they prey on other birds' eggs. They try to distract the birds until the birds give up and fly away and then the hawks swoop down and take the eggs.

In the photo below, the sea gulls are desperately trying to protect their eggs as one of the hawks tries to scare off the mother holding fort.

Santa Fe is also known for their abundant presence of Opuntia cactus. The cactus are only prickly at the top so tree lovers alike can hug these trees without worry.