Santiago Island: Espumilla Beach, Buccaneer’s Cove and Puerto Egas
This morning, under a low cloud cover typical of this time of the year, and the garua season, we disembarked on the long and soft sandy beach at Espumilla. We have seen lots of sunshine this week, considering that these low clouds are what is expected in late August and September, and this morning once again the weather did not fail us! It was cool and breezy but the sun poked from under the clouds from time to time and this was actually the perfect weather for the lovely hike we took among ghostly barren grey palo santo trees that have shed their leaves since the rains have stopped.
The trail took us first along a small dry lagoon and beneath lush button mangrove bushes. As we climbed a hill we spied Darwin finches and mockingbirds, but courting hawks and a curious juvenile that perched close to us, stole the show. Blue-footed boobies were diving just off shore.
A group of kayak enthusiasts were also up and off on their outing early this morning. They paddled at the base of the steep and impressive cliffs of Buccaneer’s Cove and enjoyed a stiff breeze and helpful current that pushed them along.
Captain Luis Teran moved the ship to anchor in Buccaneer’s Cove while we eagerly served ourselves from the lavish breakfast buffet. Our late morning outings were a choice between snorkeling or a Zodiac ride. The water was a cool 68 degrees but the visibility was excellent and we swam among the colorful fish and huge schools of “booby bait” – the black striped salema. We swam into a cave and were awed by the scene of turquoise water and many small fish.
Two Zodiacs of guests went out for a cruise along the shore and had good looks both at the interesting geological formations and the many sea birds perched on the cliffs. Antonio’s panga discovered – DOLPHINS!! All four Zodiacs eventually caught up to a huge pod of several hundred bottlenose dolphins and we had an incredible half hour’s unforgettable ride among them. They surfaced and dove, some leapt and splashed, and a few of us slipped overboard and saw them swimming below us and both heard and felt their high-pitched eco-location whistling. We snapped countless pictures, but a photo does not begin to show the excitement and thrill we felt being surround by hundreds of these graceful marine mammals.
After lunch and siesta I gave a talk about Charles Darwin and his visit to the Galapagos. Then we made a wet landing on the black sand beach at Puerto Egas for a late afternoon walk along the shore. The trail looped inland and then along the coast and we found many marine iguanas, a sea lion eating a large fish and then several fur seals. Frigates and herons and a few species of shore birds were also noted and as the afternoon cooled and the sunset - but behind the clouds – we returned to the ship, smiling and contented and wondering what we could possibly see tomorrow to top today’s dolphin experience!
