No, not that Santa Fe. Santa Fe Island is just a bit southeast of Santa Cruz Island. Here we had a wet landing but a short, rough hike – so we brought our regular hiking shoes in our bag. But first, we had more indifferent sea lions to wade thru. The picture does not do it justice, there were three times more just ignoring use with all their ability.
First thing we saw was a different kind of Prickly Pear cactus. On Santa Fe Island it has developed more into a traditional tree form. Our guide said it was an attempt to move the juicy bits farther away from the land iguana, who want to eat them. Of course, the iguana just climbs. Natural selection at its finest. But I got this cool shot of the cactus with the Silver Origin in the background.
Here we met a variation of our old friend, the Land Iguana. Out hike was in the late afternoon, so we caught many iguanas sunning on the rocks. Of course, most were facing the wrong way for cool pictures. But I caught one moving and then finally found a good angle at a quite big version.
We also found more Lava Lizards. This one missing part of his tail. Our guide mentioned that while the lizard can re-grow the tail, it does not have bone; only cartilage.
A new friend was found because our guide said that scorpions slept under rocks during the day. And sure enough, right after he said that a passenger for this 1-inch-long napper.
We reached the end of our path, our pick-up site is in sight, and we had a problem. A sea lion was sleeping right in the middle of the path, blocking passage. The rule is to not get within 2 meters of the animals. It was funny watching all the full-fare-cruise-paying passengers scooting thru the cactus, trying not to wake the sea lion.
The we were at the beach waiting for our Zodiac. It seems an adolescent male sea lion thought it was a good idea to prove he was the top mammal on the beach. He started barking and hopping towards us. Like before, the rule is to stay 2 meters away. So we scattered and ran to the other side of the beach. Bully.
