Santiago Island
Santiago, one of largest islands of the Galápagos, has a very special link with the company, as some years ago it was adopted by Lindblad Expeditions for a successful program, together with Galápagos National Park, of eradicating goats and pigs, thus providing the local wildlife the opportunity to recover from possible devastation.
It has many interesting locations to visit; one of them is Espumilla Beach, where we disembarked before breakfast to walk through forests of mangroves and palo santo trees. Behind the beach lie brackish water lagoons where birds and crabs find food. Ghosts and fiddler crabs are here by the thousands.
After breakfast back on board, our next destination was just around the corner, at a place frequented by buccaneers some centuries ago and from which it got its name, Buccaneer’s Cove. Some chose to go kayaking along the coast, others went snorkeling, and, some enjoyed the rich Galápagos underwater realm from our glass-bottomed boat.
Sea lions are so playful here that as soon as they see people they quickly come to entertain them by swimming circles around them, blowing bubbles, and sometimes even gently nibbling flippers. Other attractions are white-tipped reefs sharks that are so well behaved, they become the highlight of snorkeling outings. Not to mention the large number of different types of fishes like parrot fish, angel fish, and razor fish, which are an attraction to the eye for their remarkable bright colors.
In the afternoon, we visited Puerto Egas, which was once inhabited by people from mainland Ecuador, who came to exploit high quality salt in the 1920’s. The remains of this operation are still seen scattered around the place. The beach offers very good snorkeling and is also the starting point for a walk along the shoreline with great chances of encountering different forms of life from various groups of animals like birds, mammals, insects, reptiles, etc.
Among collapsed lava tubes and crevices live the other kind of sea lions of the Galápagos; the Galápagos fur seal differs from the others mainly by having two layers of hair, keeping it in the shade rather the sun and going to the sea to forage mostly at nighttime.
After this lovely set of activities we returned on board very happy to continue our expedition among other islands.
