Santiago Island
This morning we woke up in the central part of the archipelago to continue with our Galápagos adventure. After spending two days in the western part of the archipelago, where the colonization of wildlife is in process, this morning on Santiago Island was like being in the rain forest, the vegetation here is very dense with giant prickly pear cacti, giant incense trees, and giant bottom mangroves, and a lot of shrubs covered with insects. The males Darwin finches were singing everywhere trying to attract a mate due to the good conditions they have this time of the year.
Our pre-breakfast activity took place at Espumilla Beach. This beach is a very important nesting ground for Pacific green sea turtles, and this morning along the beach there were hundreds of turtle eggshells and fresh turtle tracks as well. This visitor site is very active and will be fun to visit every week for months to come.
After a short navigation we anchored in a new visitor site known as Buccaneers Cove. This interesting geological formation caused by erosion makes this place so enjoyable for kayaking and Zodiac rides. This is also a great snorkeling site because here you can see the two species of Galápagos sea lions in the water, this without mentioning the abundance of marine life found at this site.
Later we had to sail for a short time again to a place known as Puerto Egas, named after Hector Egas, who attempted to start a salt mining operation in this area. This time our National Geographic guests had to make a difficult decision: they had to choose between a fantastic snorkeling opportunity or an amazing walk to explore tidal pools full of wildlife. What a difficult decision—but at the end of the day everyone was happy with the choices they made.
