Santiago Island
This morning we woke up early to start the day with activities before breakfast. We landed on a beach of brown, fine powdery sand. A little higher on the beach a dense mangrove forest sheltered a treasure. Between the trunks of the low trees we saw many nests of sea turtles. In a few months the first hatchlings will start to make the push for the ocean; only a few will survive.
We headed up into the forest of tall incense trees and crossed a dry river bed created by the thousands of occasional flash floods. It is hard to imagine fast running water cascading down where we stand now, because everything around us speaks of a very dry environment and yet the smooth bedrock tells differently. Some of us opted for an alternative: a kayak ride at the foot of high cliffs of tuff rock, with a strong breeze pushing us along. Hawks soared above the cliffs. Out on the water we saw feeding frenzies of shearwaters and brown noddies.
After breakfast we do all kinds of activities; but most of us go snorkeling around the incredible dramatic cliffs, where we see abundant sea life. Others are kayaking along these same cliffs or enjoying the underwater world in a glass bottom boat. After lunch we head out to enjoy the beach, followed up by a hike along the shore of Puerto Egas. It is a spectacle of life, colors, contrasts and textures and we cannot stop taking pictures. All in all we almost see the entire west coast of Santiago.
Santiago is ‘adopted’ by the Galápagos Conservation Fund, which is founded by Lindblad. The goal is to restore the island as much as possible into conditions it was before any human set foot on it.
Around the globe island restoration is, if not only challenging, also a pioneering science where every island has to be approached differently. On islands, ecosystems are unbalanced, irregular and subject to, most of the time, unique micro-climates. It is mostly on islands where you find shocking small numbers of an endemic species. Therefore, each and every action taken to restore such ecosystems can have deep impacts, or put differently, any conservation effort can potentially save a species or push it to extinction. It is like playing with fire on the archipelago of fire…
We are both thankful and proud that the generosity of our guests has created the momentum and the financial power of the Galápagos Conservation Fund, to continue the difficult work involved in restoring these islands. It is thanks to this generosity that Galápagos receives the greatest gift possible – a fair chance to combat the many dangers the future holds for this innocent, magic World’s End.
