Today we began our day with an invigorating exercise hike before breakfast. As we landed on Espumilla Beach on Santiago Island we found several fresh sea turtles tracks all along the beach.
As we explored a bit more, we also encountered a small flock of Bahamas’s pintail ducks in a fresh water lagoon along with some Whimbrels and lots of fiddler crabs that looked very busy waving their large claw to impress the females. After this great walk that took us to the top of an extinct volcanic cone and to an old dry creek we returned aboard for breakfast.
This morning and after breakfast we headed out again and some of our guests went snorkeling in deep waters or on a ride on our glass bottom boat. There we saw white tipped reef sharks, a very large manta ray, sea stars, and lots of fish of different species. Those who wanted to try something a bit different went kayaking along the coast of Santiago and had a great time observing the amazing volcanic landscape, as well as some sea birds that were roosting on the rocks.
As soon as everybody returned on board we navigated to Puerto Egas for our afternoon activities. There we went snorkeling from the shore and even with the rain that fell over us it was still an interesting place to snorkel. Our guests swam with Galápagos sea lions as well as turtles, rays, and sharks. Some of the Galápagos sea lions were resting on the sandy shore line; one of the sea lions decided to take a very close inspection of our bags and belongings left while we were in the water.
Later on the afternoon we went walking and the rain accompanied us for just a few minutes and for the rest of the afternoon was dry. We saw Galápagos marine iguanas, Galápagos fur seals, and some shore birds that were looking for food around the intertidal zone.
We returned aboard and once there we shared together some of the experiences from our day on Santiago Island.
