Santiago Island
This island has a very interesting human history, from pirates and whalers to the most famous visitor of the Galápagos Archipelago—Charles Darwin—who spent nine days here in 1835.
This morning we had a pre-breakfast outing to explore Espumilla Beach and its surroundings. During our early morning hike we saw many Darwin finches, Galápagos hawks, Galápagos mockingbirds, Galápagos doves and a beautiful landscape covered with a button mangrove forest. This beach is also a very important nesting ground for the Pacific green sea turtle. Everything we saw on this outing conspired to make our morning both enjoyable and unforgettable.
Later on, after breakfast, we repositioned to the famous Buccaneer Cove where we departed on snorkeling activities in crystal blue waters. The abundance of marine life was impressive: stingrays, sea lions, stone scorpionfish, hieroglyphic hawkfish, huge schools of black and white salemas, lobsters and many other colorful tropical fish were spotted. And to make it even better, the water temperature was very refreshing and lovely for this time of the year.
Just before noon we went out for more adventure: some of our guests were Zodiac-riding and some others kayaking under spectacular cliffs of striated tuff stone. All in all it was a very intense morning, but very rewarding for the many spectacular sightings we encountered out there.
In order to continue our adventure we sailed on to a different location known as Puerto Egas. On the way, we gathered in the lounge to learn about Charles Darwin and the role of Galápagos in his life and ideas. Later on, we disembarked on a black sandy beach to explore the coastline, which, by the way, is the best for tidal pool exploration.
The main attraction was the second species of sea lion we have here in the archipelago, the Galápagos fur seal. This particular marine mammal has a double layer of fur, which is the reason they are not found on beaches. They love caves, crevices, and shady spots, and this afternoon we not only saw many of them, but our guests had the opportunity to compare both species in the same area.
Along the walk we also encountered many marine iguanas, migratory shorebirds, finches, yellow warblers, lava lizards and a spectacular rainbow as the sun was setting on the Pacific Ocean horizon.
