This great bay was where many pirates and buccaneers re-supplied their ships with fresh water and tortoises, before continuing their journeys across the Pacific. The huge, new-looking lava flow behind the Zodiac has a claim to fame: it was the first lava flow to be dated through the use of marmalade jars. But you have to come and visit to hear the whole story. Santiago Island is the focus of many on-going projects these days. There has been a new discovery recently, and our endemic "Rice rat", once thought to have gone extinct over a century ago, has been re-discovered by scientists. How these little rodents have survived together with the introduced black rats, brought to the islands centuries ago by the first explorers, has yet to be understood, because on all the other islands where they overlap, our little "Rice rat" has succumbed to the competition.
A plant once thought to be extinct, the Scalesia atractyloides, has been protected for the future thanks to an increase in the number of exploratory visits by scientists. More so than many of the islands in the archipelago, Santiago Island symbolizes hope for us here in Galapagos.
