PLAZA SUR ISLAND – DAILY TOUR

Full Day:

ITABACA CANAL – PLAZAS ISLAND

• Plaza Sur island is located at east from Santa Cruz, is a small island, it has an area of 0.13 km and an altitude of 25 meters in its highest point. This island is the home to a very peculiar kind of flora here in Galápagos, due to the fact that during the months of January to April the vegetation takes a bright green for a color, but when temperatures get colder the vegetation switches its color to an energetic red. Leading to astonishing landscapes.
• The tour starts around 7h30 or 8:00 am, a representative of our agency will pick you up in your hotel or in a meeting point previously arranged, we will take a 45 minutes van ride to Itabaca channel. Two hours navigation approximately to get to Plazas. Once we get there we will have a dry landing in a dock that is a common meeting point for sea lions to sunbath.
• We will do a 2.5 km hike through a rocky path where we will be able to see land iguanas resting under the shadow of different plants. Plaza Sur is the home to many hybrid iguanas that are the result of a female land iguana and male marine iguana.
• The path will lead us to a small cliff where we will be able to get a panoramic view of the island. During our hike you will be able to watch a variety of finches, the bird that help Darwin support his theory. As well as brown pelicans, Swallowed-tailed gull and other tropical birds. While we walk through the border of the cliff you will be able to watch inside the sea different kinds of fish. If you take a look into the open sea it is possible to watch dolphins and sometimes orcas.
• At the end of the path we will reach a platform made out of volcanic material, this platform is the beginning of a beach known as the “single sea lion beach”, due to the fact that is packed with sea lions that lost their territories. The population of this colony is around 1000 sea lions. We return to the boat through the same path in order to have lunch and navigate to Punta Carrion, an ideal place to practice snorkel with stingrays, sharks and a variety of fish.

Full Day: RETURN

Return to Puerto Ayora at 17h30 approximately.