Santiago Island: Buccaneer Cove, Egas Port, 3/22/2024, National Geographic Endeavour II
Aboard the
National Geographic Endeavour II
Galápagos
Santiago Island has many visitor sites, and for the last few decades the Galapagos National Park has been restoring the Islands. This afternoon we had the sensation of walking on a pristine island as a result of their efforts.
Walter was born in a very small town on the mainland of Ecuador. His first trip to the Galápagos was when he was 12 years old, visiting friends and aunt, who had moved to the islands. From the first moment he saw the Islands, he fell in love with the...
Enter travel details to receive reports from a single expedition
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Send Daily Expedition Reports to friends and family
*By clicking the submit button, I authorize Lindblad Expeditions to email me; however, I am able to unsubscribe at any time. For more details, see our Privacy Policy.
Please note: All Daily Expedition Reports (DERs) are posted Monday-Friday,
during normal business hours. DERs are written onboard the ship only and do
not apply to land-based portions of expeditions.
We arrived at Floreana Island early this morning, and we could hear everyone getting ready to go ashore at Punta Cormorant before breakfast. There were blue-footed boobies, flamingoes, and frigates feeding by the shore. We got to a white sandy beach, known as “flour beach”, and there we spotted several green sea turtles, a shark, and a newborn marine iguana. We snorkeled from Zodiacs and had a ride on our glass bottom boat along the coast of Champion Islet. During the afternoon we went to Post Office Bay to kayak and to leave postcards in the wooden barrel as a continuation of an ancient tradition.
Our day started with a lovely visit to the beach at Gardner Bay. Then we had an amazing snorkeling excursion at Gardner Islet. In the afternoon we topped off our wonderful day with an amazing hike at Punta Suarez, which has a massive number of seabirds and lizards.
We arrived at Academy Bay early in the morning. Santa Cruz Island has a large population of giant tortoises as well as the breeding center for giant tortoises that belongs to the Galapagos National Park. We had a great time observing tortoises in captivity as well as in the wild. We also had a great opportunity to see the saddleback tortoises as well as the dome-shaped carapace. A very important aspect of the archipelago is not only the giant tortoises but also the unusual vegetation, such as the giant daisies and giant prickly pear cacti. We had a great time exploring this island and observing the wildlife as well as spending some time with the local community.
