Santiago Island
Located in the central part of the archipelago, Santiago offers an incredible and colorful landscape, the result of a great many eruptions that occurred in the past, the last in 1897.
Early in the morning we landed at Espumilla Beach, an enigmatic place well known by ancient whalers and pirates, who came to resupply their ships with giant tortoises. After an easy wet landing, we headed inland through dense vegetation, which looked like a real forest after many months of rainfalls. The huge palo santo trees looked magnificent with their branches full of mockingbirds and finches, while on the ground, dry leaves protected our feet against the humidity and mud. We observed the river bed and the place where there was a waterfall formed by torrential rains during many “el Niño” years, a long time ago.
After breakfast the National Geographic Endeavour was repositioned to Buccaneer’s Cove and we resumed our activities with different choices, such as kayaking, deep-water snorkeling and glass-bottom boating. With a shining sun and warm water, the weather conditions were perfect for enjoying all these activities, with opportunities to discover an incredible underwater world and the geology of the island. We observed sea lions, manta rays, colorful tropical fish and white-tipped reef sharks.
In the afternoon, our activities began with a landing at the black-sand beach of Puerto Egas, or James Bay. A group of guests enjoyed walking and taking pictures along the beach, while in the water we snorkeled along the shallows, observing many sea turtles and playful sea lions who were our companions during this sunny day.
After swimming, we changed our swimsuits for shorts and shoes, to walk along the intertidal zone of Santiago. As soon as we got there, marine iguanas captivated our attention with their sun basking positions, as if they adored the sun; but they need the sun energy to keep warm. Walking through the black lava we got up to the “grottos,” natural tidal pools where fur sea lions swam peacefully, while on the rocks, sea and shore birds fluttered, looking for small crustaceans or fish.
The sky changed its color from blue to orange as the sun disappeared at the horizon, and we remained sitting on the rocks observing that magical sunset, remembering the innocence of those incredible creatures.
