Cerro Dragon, Santa Cruz & Floreana

Gorgeous shell beach
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Our first full day in the Galapagos!  We were woken up by gentle music, then a nice announcement reminding us that in 15 minutes breakfast would be served.  Almost every morning, we were woken at 6:45am for breakfast at 7am, with the first excursion starting at 8am.  Occasionally our schedule would be slightly earlier.  It was a good system.  Breakfast on the ship always included plenty of fresh fruit and three interesting fresh juice options, I loved that.

Our first excursion was to Cerro Dragon, Santa Cruz.  Cerro Dragon is a little hill along the coast, it looks like a little dragon/lizard lying down.  Use your imagination.  We had a dry landing on some black rocks on the shoreline and then walked across a lovely beach composed of small shell fragments - I liked the long, thin, tube-shaped ones, which are actually discarded sea urchin spines.  This was the first time we got to see sally lightfoot crabs, the quick-moving and very colorful crabs that are just a delight to watch.  I loved their bright color combinations!  After we were done with the shoreline, we ducked inland to walk by a lagoon with many birds, and then continued on up Cerro Dragon.  We passed some interesting prickly pear cactus, many land iguanas, and before we knew it we were on top of the small hill, overlooking the ocean and our little ship bobbing nearby.  I loved every time we had a view of our ship - I felt so privileged to be traveling through such beautiful islands in such style.  It always reminded me that we had so many adventures to come, as well.  We hiked down from the hill on a different path (much more rocky) to a beautiful beach, where we had a wet landing pick up (everyone took off their shoes and hopped in the panga).

Sally Lightfoot crabs
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Back on the ship we were greeted with chocolate-covered strawberries (they always had a small snack waiting for us right away after we would return from an adventure).  One important thing we always had to do was sign in, every time we boarded the ship after an excursion.  It helps keep track of everyone to make sure that we all got on the ship again.  On the ship we rented snorkel equipment ($40 each for the 7 days plus tax), spent far too much time tanning on the deck (don't do this on your first day, no matter how good it feels!), and of course had a nice lunch.  All the while, our ship transported us to our next destination.  I love cruising, it is such a fun and relaxing way to travel.

Floreana
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Our afternoon destination was Punta Coroman, Floreana.  We had a wet landing on the beach and then walked to a lagoon where flamingos live.  Sadly, there wasn't as much water in the lagoon as usual, and so the flamingos were too far away for really good pictures.  Still, it was fun to see them.  We walked up the hill to get a good view of the lagoon, and then over to a different beach that is off-limits for swimming because turtles need that area.  And we did see turtles swimming in the waves!  We also saw this frigate bird hovering in the air, waiting for baby turtles to emerge on the beach so it could pounce on them.  It was a little creepy to see it hold so still in one place in the air, actually!  I felt like I was watching a kite or something.

Interesting lagoon at Cerro Dragon
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Back at our original landing beach, we had the opportunity to snorkel.  This was one of five snorkeling opportunites our cruise gave us.  It was a nice calm area for a first snorkel, especially for an out-of-practice swimmer such as myself!  I saw a lot of fish.  We laughed over how silly we felt putting on our snorkeling gear and trying to get into the water.  We definitely needed more practice at it!