Whereas on a weeklong cruise with Ecoventura, onboard MV Origin, I had the chance to go to quite a few areas throughout the Galápagos.
On the second day of the cruise, we spent the morning at Las Bachas seashore then cruised to Cerro Dragón to spend the day mountaineering and exploring this pure wonderland. Positioned on Santa Cruz island, Cerro Dragón is home to land iguanas, marine iguanas, flamingos, and totally different shorebirds.
Cerro Dragón is a must-see and was one in all my favorite areas throughout the Galápagos.
The Iguanas of Cerro Dragón
This beautiful island is good to hike spherical and acknowledge the unbelievable beauty of nature. It’s home to Dragon Hill and may also be among the many most interesting areas throughout the Galápagos Islands to see land iguanas. To not be confused with the marine iguana, the Galápagos land iguana is yellow/brown in color and is barely found on, you guessed it, land.
We solely seen 3 alongside our hike, nevertheless additional shall be seen all through completely totally different situations of the 12 months.
You might even see them taking siestas on trails, lounging on the rocky seashores, or feeding on cactus. It’s a cool probability to see them of their pure setting!
Sightseeing
There’s rather a lot to take in spherical Dragon Hill. You probably can merely spend a full afternoon exploring the island, and that’s exactly what we did. Wandering alongside the lava stream on the seashore and testing the quite a few land and marine iguanas is a fairly good technique to spend a day.
This untouched island is part of the Charles Darwin Foundation and the Galápagos Nationwide Park conservation program, and even from a distance you’ll see marine iguanas basking on its shores.
Prickly Pear Cactus
One different certainly one of many pleasant parts of mountaineering spherical Dragon Hill is testing the complete completely totally different cacti. There are six species of prickly pear cacti throughout the Galápagos Islands.
Land iguanas eat them, nevertheless you’ll sample them too. Prickly pear cacti have three edible bits typically referred to as cactus fruit. They’re the pads (nopal), the petals of the flower, and the pear (tuna).
You’ll uncover them served solo (raw or cooked) along with in quite a lot of salads, candies, jams, juices, and absolutely anything you’ll take into account.
