Las Bachas    Click on the images below to see an enlargement

This delightful northern beach on Santa Cruz island is a golden sand strip bounded by rocky outcrops at each end. As we walked along the beach we saw turtle tracks pointing to nearby nests, a very old shipwreck, and one from World War II, with Marine Iguanas wandering along the beach.

Our goal was just over the top of the beach sand dune, where we found a saline lagoon with Flamingos feeding in the water, Iguanas sunning around the edge and birds wading and hopping about. It was amusing to watch the flamingos "dancing" as they trampled the lagoon bottom to flush out shrimps and small organisms to be filtered by their inverted curved beaks.

Back on the beach, the water was beautifully clear and blue, encouraging many of the group to snorkel.

Brown Pelican	Blue Heron	Yellow Warbler	Greater Flamingo
Whimbrel	Yellow Warbler			Brown Pelican