Santiago Island, 3/21/2018, National Geographic Endeavour II
Aboard the
National Geographic Endeavour II
Galápagos
After a long navigation last night, this morning we arrived to the west coast of Santiago Island. Today we explored this island by many different means—we went hiking, kayaking, paddle boarding, snorkeling and on outings in the glass-bottom boat.
Gilda was born in Ambato, located in the very heart of the Ecuadorian Andes. Since she was a child, she loved animals, often rescuing street cats and dogs. Her parents always made sure there were nature books and plenty of Jacques Cousteau’s videos a...
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This morning, we explored Bartolome Island which has one of the most impressive landscapes in the Galapagos, Pinnacle Rock. It is surrounded by beautiful blue waters and two golden sandy beaches. We hiked to the top of the island and later went snorkeling along the coast where we found sharks, rays, and large schools of fish. This afternoon, we motored to Chinese Hat where we snorkeled from our Zodiacs and the sun accentuated the turquoise water to its intensity. After snorkeling, we returned to this area for a sunset Zodiac ride along the coast and found boobies, sea lions, and a couple of Galapagos penguins.
Today we visited the untouched lands of Santa Cruz Island. We explored and were on the lookout for the dragons of the archipelago, the Galapagos land iguanas. We found so much more, including the flamboyant American flamingoes foraging in the brackish lagoon. Later in the afternoon we explored the coast by Zodiac and kayaks, and it was so much fun. To finish our day, we sailed around Daphne Major as we enjoyed wine tasting during a lovely sunset. It was such a wonderful experience.
Today our guests explored Santa Cruz Island. After a delicious breakfast we landed at Puerto Ayora, which is the home port of most of the tour operations in the Galapagos. This town is also where the headquarters of the Galapagos National Park and the Charles Darwin Research Station are located. Today our guests learned about the iconic giant tortoise restoration project and hiked into giant tortoise territory.
