Christian Saa, Naturalist/Certified Photo Instructor
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Daily Expedition
Reports
09 Jan 2019
James Island, 1/9/2019, National Geographic Endeavour II
Aboard the
National Geographic Endeavour II
Galápagos
This island happens to be the last site which was visited by Charles Darwin during his famous Voyage of the Beagle. It is as rich in human history as it is in natural history, an island like no other, with its contrasting landscapes, ranging from very recent lava flows to lush and green cloud forests.
Today, National Geographic Endeavour II visited three different sites on this island, starting with a pre-breakfast walk for photographers, and a natural history lecture for everybody else. Later in the day, our guests had the opportunity to kayak and snorkel in two prime locations.
Socrates was raised on Santa Cruz Island located in the heart of Galapagos Archipelago. He had a childhood filled with swimming, scuba diving, rock climbing and volunteering in conservation projects, so it was natural for him to grow very passionate ...
Christian was born on the island of Isabela in the Galápagos archipelago. He grew up on a farm and had a magical childhood devoid of cars, electricity, telephones—just pure nature and playful sea lions along the beach. At the age of seven, he moved w...
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Today we had an optional early wet landing at Cormorant Point’s visitor site, searching for flamingoes and turtles. We also had a fun opportunity to see a few sea lions, Sally Lightfoot crabs and many birds. Back on board for breakfast, we repositioned to our snorkeling site. Today’s underwater wildlife was surreal. Sea lions, fish of all kinds and colors, turtles, sharks, rays, scorpion fish, lobster, eels, and more were encountered. We are currently experiencing the changing seasons and the wildlife is mating, for warmer water will incubate the eggs. We boarded National Geographic Endeavour II for a delicious Mexican lunch as we repositioned again for our visit to the world-famous Post-Office Bay. Before we disembarked, we enjoyed the Darwin presentation given by Naturalist Celso Montalvo. Today we exchanged post cards left from previous visitors to have them hand-delivered, just like the ones our guests are leaving behind. Some of us further explored the bay, opting for kayaking, snorkeling, or enjoying a pleasant walk along the beach. We ended the day with our recap and briefing about our next destination. We are now deeply united with this magical feeling of love, coexistence, and respect for one another as the result of exploring this special place, the Galapagos Islands.
Today we arrived at Española, the oldest island of the archipelago, in the southeastern realm of Galapagos. We started our activities early in the morning with snorkeling; some guests opted for deep-water snorkeling, to enjoy the deep blue with amazing marine wildlife at Gardner Islet, while others chose to snorkel from the beach. We finished our morning activities with a visit to Gardner Bay, to enjoy its coralline, stunningly soft white sand beach and turquoise waters. Later in the afternoon, we headed to Punta Suarez. There our guests enjoyed the presence of lots of sea lions playing at the coast. We also saw marine iguanas, gathering in large groups over old lava boulders for warmth. We observed many different birds as well, including blue-footed boobies, nesting Nazca boobies, and the Galapagos hawk. It was an amazing first full day in Galapagos!
Today was the final day of exploration on our cruise around the Galapagos Islands. We dropped anchor by breakfast time at Punta Pitt, the northern part of San Cristobal. Here we walked around an old tuff cone to find a new species of bird for our guests, the red-footed booby. These seabirds are tree nesters, and they are found in a handful of places in the archipelago. To the surprise of everyone we had some rain in the middle of the hike; we returned to the beach and enjoyed some time there. In the afternoon the ship moved to Cerro Brujo for our final outing of the voyage. Here our guests had their last swimming opportunity in the crystal-clear waters with three-foot waves. To end the day we moved to Kicker Rock, for a circumnavigation of the most famous islet in Galapagos, to enjoy some champagne and celebrate life.
