Santiago Island
Today we were back at the central part of the archipelago to visit a very interesting island. Santiago Island was visited by many explorers, pirates and early colonizer. In 1835 Charles Darwin set foot on this island too. This island’s ecosystem was altered by introduced animals left behind by some of the first visitors. This caused dramatic changes to the flora and fauna, but with the help of the Galápagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Research Station this ecosystem is being restored with great success. The native and endemic flora is coming back and providing good conditions for Santiago Giant tortoises and Santiago mice rats that once were very close to extinction. I am proud to say that through donations, we help support the different eradication projects carried out on this island through the Charles Darwin Research Station.
This morning was our pre-breakfast disembarkation at Espumilla Beach; our dear explorers had the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of this place during a mile walk along a dense vegetation zone with great sightings. Soon after we were at a different location known as Buccaneers Cove for round two of kayaking and deep water snorkeling. The geology of this place is very dramatic, making this visit very impressive. The abundance of marine life is also very exuberant, and that is the reason we spent the whole morning in this bay.
We continued our adventures at Puerto Egas, where we had the options of snorkeling or tidal pool exploration. Twelve hours of day light at the equator simply is not enough time to enjoy the magic of this Archipelago. We felt the sensation of being the first people on the island, like explorers did centuries ago.
Today in our activities we saw lots of fish, seabirds and land birds. We even had the opportunity to see both species of Galápagos sea lions. What a wonderful and successful day we had here in paradise.
