Santiago
On James Island, also known as San Salvador Island, we had an interesting pre-breakfast outing in the Palo Santo forest, right behind Espumilla Beach. We took a walk in the forests of Galápagos, which throughout is mostly a scoria kind of terrain surrounded by vegetation; the Palo Santo forest are the largest trees found in the archipelago. Along this hike we also encountered some land birds. Luckily enough some different species were found at one another’s sides and could talk about the difference in bills size with a large ground and medium ground finches that were feeding along the sides of the rocks. The difference in size was so obvious that there was no doubt about their names.
Later we repositioned the ship to Buccaneer Cove to go snorkeling. Just as our Zodiac drivers were getting ready for the morning outing, we found ourselves surrounded by a big pod of bottlenose dolphins. We climbed into the Zodiacs as quickly as we could and we headed out to take a closer look at these beautiful creatures that where probably migrating south; we decided that there were not less than 300 individuals including babies — what a neat experience to be surrounded by them for over 40 minutes! Snorkeling with sea lions had us swimming in all directions, very playful mates that where more curious about us then we were about them… The snorkeling was just great, one of the best so far this week; there were many colorful fish and a 4-foot marble ray sleeping on the sandy bottom.
In the afternoon some of us took a well-deserved siesta, the rest listened to Lynn’s entertaining presentation on Charles Darwin. After siesta time the Captain navigated to the afternoon visitor site, Puerto Egas. We took a hike along the lava flows and found an interesting amount of shore birds, different varieties of migratory species that normally avoid wintertime in the northern latitudes and come down south to enjoy a bit of warmer weathers. As we approached the grottos we found a half-dozen fur seals, some active and some resting, and we encountered a couple lava herons chasing Sally Lightfoot crabs.
As we returned to the ship at sunset, we could not feel more happiness or joy. We realize that the energy of nature undisturbed is contagious, and it makes us feel privileged to have the chance to discover and explore this enchanted archipelago.
