The two Plazas islands lie immediately east of Santa Cruz; only the south island is open as a visitor site. At .13 sq km/32 acres, Plaza Sur is the smallest of the islands on regularly scheduled stops, Plaza Sur nonetheless sports one of the highest concentrations of animals, including sea lions, both iguanas, lava lizard, ground finches, tropicbird, Blue-Foot & Nazca Booby, brown pelican, among others.

This image shows the large Opuntia cactus (Opuntia spp) on the right with the red Galápagos Carpetweed (Sesuvium edmonstonei) stretching across the otherwise barren ground down to the sea.