Santiago
We spent today visiting the island of Santiago, the fourth largest island in the Galapagos. It’s one of a handful of islands where freshwater can be found inland. It’s also the site of a very successful conservation project funded by the Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic Fund for the Galapagos along with guest donations that has completely eradicated feral goats and pigs.
The first activity was an optional early morning hike. We had a wet landing on Espumilla Beach, an important nesting site for Pacific green sea turtles. We could see several nest located in the sand underneath the mangroves. The trail has some steep terrain that led to a vantage point where we were treated to a view out over the beach where we had arrived and a rainbow over the Endeavour. The trail downwards took us through an amazing tunnel of mangroves where we had to duck and scramble over large trunks and branches.
A short move to Buccaneer Cove, a former pirate haunt and the place where Charles Darwin visited the longest in the Galapagos, and things kicked into overdrive. We could choose to take part in kayaking, glass bottom boat tours and deep water snorkeling. You’ll never guess what I choose. The water was relatively clear and warmer than yesterday. Marine life was plentiful, mostly tropical fish like parrotfish, triggerfish and king angelfish. There is also an amazing diversity of starfish, including my favourite, the chocolate chip starfish.
The snorkel site is along a rock wall with some cool caves to explore. I swam through a tunnel in the rock and popped up in a little pool within the rock. My snorkel today ended with a little attention from the ship’s doctor. It was impossible to avoid and could have happened to anyone. I saw the glass bottom boat approaching and decided to do a little showboating, swimming underneath and waving at the people on board. On one pass I misjudged how deep I had swam down and hit my shoulder on a rock covered in barnacles. I didn’t think anything of it at the time, but when I took my wetsuit off I had nicely scraped up my shoulder and had to undergo a through disinfection.
During lunch we moved to anchor at Puerto Egas. After another wet landing in the zodiacs we had a choice between a hike along the shoreline to look for marine iguanas, sea lions and fur seals or to relax on the beach and have a swim or snorkel from shore. I choose the hike because I had inside info that it was pretty good. We followed the coastline and were treated to marine iguanas, sally light foot crabs, Galapagos fur seals and sea lions as well as many bird species. I spent quite a bit of time trying to capture marine iguanas sneezing and I’m happy to say I had some success. As the sun was setting the lighting was perfect for photographs as we walked over the rough, lava shoreline. A highlight was a mother sea lion suckling her pup, probably only a week or so old. We stopped to watch the sunset behind the volcanoes of Isabella in the distance. I hopped onto the last zodiac and returned to the Endeavour in the fading light.
We had a recap of the day and checked out a preview of the video that the ship’s videographer is putting together. After that we’ll had a BBQ on the deck and ate under the stars. The perfect end to another perfect day in the Galapagos! Tomorrow brings the Charles Darwin Research Station, a trip to a local school and heading up into the highlands to find the giant tortoises.
Baby Watch: Negative