Santa Cruz Island, 11/2/2017, National Geographic Endeavour II
Aboard the
National Geographic Endeavour II
Galápagos
Today we arrived to the second largest island in the archipelago, Santa Cruz.
Here our guests witnessed a human settlement in the Galapagos for the first time on the expedition. We visited places like the Charles Darwin Research Station, El Trapiche coffee farm and a giant tortoises reserve in the highlands of Santa Cruz.
Enrique was born on San Cristobal Island, which is the political capital of the Galapagos. His parents moved from mainland Ecuador in the 1980’s, as did many other Ecuadorians, in search of better work opportunities.
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This is one of the islands with a wide variety of wildlife and geological scenery; part of the island is old, and the other half is relatively young. We visited early in the morning and enjoyed a beach stroll before breakfast to admire more of the Galapagos animals. Then we kayaked, went glass bottom boating, and snorkeled at the foot of a bay called Buccaneer Cove, where Darwin disembarked 200 years ago to study the Galapagos ecosystems. In the afternoon we visited Puerto Egas, a magical place full of iguanas, sea lions, sea birds, and land iguanas. There were also plenty of land birds, such as mockingbirds, finches, flycatchers, and more. We ended our day enjoying a BBQ dinner and a musical serenade from our naturalists to our happy guests. Dancing and singing were also part of our great journey exploring this enchanted archipelago.
Isabela Island is the largest island in the Galapagos Archipelago. It is comprised of a backbone of five huge shield volcano: Wolf, Darwin, Alcedo, Sierra Negra, and Cerro Azul. All of these massive volcanos are active, and you can say that more or less every three years we have an eruption from one of these volcanos.
National Geographic Endeavour II awoke in the western realm of the Galapagos Archipelago. We visited the youngest Island, Fernandina! The single shield volcano is still active, and large fields of basaltic lava are covered by Galapagos marine iguanas, a rather harsh environment that hosts amazing wildlife. From the top predator to the colorful Sally Lightfoot crabs, everyone is trying to survive. In the afternoon we visited Volcano Ecuador and enjoyed a Zodiac ride along its coast, where Nazca boobies were spotted as well as Galapagos fur seals and Galapagos penguins.
