The day started with a beautiful sunrise as we landed at Espumilla Beach on James Island at 6:30 in the morning. The shoreline where we landed showed a few signs of sea turtle nesting activity. There were a number of tracks in the sand as well as numerous depressions where the green sea turtles had laid their eggs. The light was great for photography, so a group of guest went ashore on a dedicated photography walk searching for the best compositions. At the same time we had another three groups of guest ashore that went on a nature hike where they learned about the importance of mangrove ecosystems, saw Galapagos flycatchers, Darwin finches, Galapagos mockingbirds and Galapagos doves. At the end of the hikes everybody observed hatchling sea turtles trying to make it to the water as the Galapagos hawks and frigate birds started to pick them off the sand.
After breakfast, by 10:30 a.m., National Geographic Endeavour had changed her position to our new stop at Buccaneers Cove. Here the guests had different options to choose from. During the remaining part of the morning, we had guests that went on an snorkeling outing and encountered good sized schools of yellow tailed surgeonfish together with some king angelfish, a couple of white-tipped reef sharks, and a number of streamer hogfish. We also had a couple of kayaking outings along the coast of Buccaneers Cove where they were able to observe Galapagos sea lions and some sea birds perched on the cliffs. It was time for lunch so we headed back on board.
Right after lunch the guests of National Geographic Endeavour had the chance to ask questions about photography in a session with one of our photo instructors.
The action began again at 4:00 p.m. with a few groups of nature hikers that went ashore to explore the trail at James Bay. The highlight of this activity were the Galapagos fur seals that the guests found on the rocky shores of this coastline. As the day was ending the sun generated great light for photography so on the way back to the landing site the guests dedicated their time to photographing landscapes and wildlife. It was already 6:00 p.m., so we then returned to National Geographic Endeavour.
