Today we wake up in a bay surrounded by some prominent geological formations, like a fresh lava flow, cinder cones, steep cliffs of tuff stone and a chocolate brown beach. This is James Bay, frequented by the explorers in earlier centuries, now a wonderful site teeming with life.
At 6:00 a.m. the weather is calm, as is the ocean, normal for this time of the year.
We head out for an early morning walk, and thanks to the low sun and a heavy cloud hanging just above the bay the sea birds diving in the shallows in front of us have a wonderful light cast upon them. We see boobies plungediving, pelicans, American oystercatcher and frigate birds. The walk leads us a little inshore and through dense mangrove forest, then to an outcropping, to finish at a salt water lagoon that is dry this time of the year.
Later that morning we head out for a snorkel at Buccaneer’s Cove, a site with steep cliffs and basaltic dikes that extent into the ocean for a few hundred yards. Along these cliffs there is plenty to see, sea lions, schooling fish, reef fish, and an occasional shark. Some prefer to have a Zodiac ride and can work on their landscape photography.
In the afternoon we land for a walk at Puerto Egas, a site were the beach is made up of tuff striations and lava grottos, where fur seals linger in the nooks and many Sally Lightfoot crabs, marine iguanas and herons occupy this large intertidal zone. Even an octopus is spotted in a small tidal pool during the walk.
Santiago also hosts a population of giant tortoises that is back on track to sustainable numbers, thanks to the captive breeding program started by the Charles Darwin Foundation. The Galapagos Conservation Fund, founded by Lindblad Expeditions, contributes to this program.
