We were sleeping soundly, after yet another full and interesting day in the eastern islands of the Galapagos archipelago when Captain Patricio Jaramillo had our boson haul up the anchor of the National Geographic Islander to begin our navigation towards the central islands. The sea was calm until we rounded Santa Cruz at about 0200 and then we experienced a slight rolling of our good little ship. Our Captain dropped anchor just before dawn off the large island of Santiago and we awoke to find an “other-worldly” scene! An extensive, barren black lava field dominated the shoreline of Santiago and the nearby small reddish islet lived up to its name of Sombrero Chino or Chinese Hat!
Daniel announced that breakfast was ready and we ate delicious eggs benedict, smoked trout, and tropical fruits. A group of eager guests joined naturalist Sylvia in the bright yellow kayaks and paddled all along the shores of both Sombrero Chino and then Santiago Island. They had the wind at their backs for much of the hour’s outing and so glided along quickly. The rest of us loaded into the Zodiacs with naturalists Enrique, Christian, and me to explore the rugged coast line. The tide was low and we saw hundreds of brilliant red Sally light foot crabs feeding on the exposed rocks, and there were herons fishing, and pelicans flying overhead. Only a few of us saw a lone penguin zip thru the water as it fed on small fish.
We returned to the ship and donned our wet suits in preparation for snorkeling from the Zodiacs in the turquoise waters between the two islands. Three Zodiacs with naturalists went out and had an absolutely marvelous time! The water was chilly, but quite clear and there were literally thousands of fish of dozens of different species. We spotted a diamond ray, two garden eels, and huge sea stars on the sandy bottom. But the highlight was seeing at least 8 white tipped reef sharks!
Sylvia took a small group of guests to the tiny white beach on Sombrero and they too had a wonderful, restful time. We all returned to the ship by 1100, sipped a welcome cup of hot cocoa, and took warm showers. We cruised north past Bainbridge Islet and spied 5 flamingos in the crater lake and then enjoyed our buffet lunch and siesta. Enrique and the kids decorated bandanas and caps and later I showed pictures and talked about my experiences while doing PhD research living on Volcan Alcedo 30 years ago.
In the cool of the late afternoon we disembarked on the northern edge of the black pahoehoe lava flow that we know dates from 1897. We were amazed by the varied and beautiful surface of this barren lava and took many photos. On our way both to and from the lava hike, we were delighted to find a couple of penguins (and one Zodiac saw a group of 8!) on shore as we motored by. Dinner tonight was a barbecue buffet on the sky deck and afterwards Christian got his guitar out and we joined him in the lounge for singing and laughter to complete another magical day in las islas encantadas!
