Santiago Island
This morning we disembarked in the dearest island of Charles Darwin: Santiago. It is located in the center of the archipelago and was a great way to continue with our Galápagos adventure after spending two days in the western part of the archipelago. Today’s early morning walk at Espumilla beach was like trekking in the rain forest, with vegetation up to our waists and spiders up to our noses. This beach is a very important nesting ground for the Pacific green sea turtles, and this morning along the beach there were hundreds of turtle eggshells and fresh turtle tracks in the disembarkation area. This is also where we found the very large giant prickly pear cactus, the giant incense trees and the giant bottom mangrove, all at once. Darwin finches were having a ball with the late rainy season’s fruits, seeds, and other goodies.
After a short navigation we anchored in a new visitor site known as Buccaneers Cove, that features The Bishop, a rock formation named after the discoverer of the Galápagos Islands: Tomas de Berlanga, bishop of Panama. The interesting geological formation caused surprise and awe. Along with snorkeling we offered kayaking activities and Zodiac ride to please all tastes. We had a great snorkeling because we saw turtles, the two species of Galápagos sea lions in the water, and including, of course, abundant marine life, both vertebrate and invertebrate.
Then we sailed for few miles to a place known as Puerto Egas, named after Hector Egas, who ran a salt mining operation in this area in the fifties. This time our Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic guests chose between a fantastic snorkeling opportunity or an amazing walk to explore tidal pools full of wildlife. One of the walks included a photographic hike…just another day in paradise…
