Before breakfast, a number of guests gathered on the sky deck of the National Geographic Islander as we slipped past one of the Bainbridge islets for a special wildlife sighting. Deep inside, we finally spotted some flamingos! It was a small flock (11 flamingos in all), yet large for Galápagos. Their beautiful colors stood out brilliantly against a brackish gray lagoon.
The rest of the morning was spent mostly in the channel separating Sombrero Chino (Chinese Hat) and the island of Santiago—Darwin’s favorite and our “adopted” island. For many years now, we have supported conservation and restoration projects on the island. Slowly but surely we are seeing the return of native vegetation now that introduced species such as goats and pigs are gone.
While some guests shared a small white beach with sea lions and enjoyed the sunshine, some of us went snorkeling. The visibility was excellent, and the current took us along freely and effortlessly. We saw penguins, sharks, parrotfish, and best of all, Galápagos marine iguanas feeding on algae underwater. Where else in the world could this be seen?
By afternoon, the captain repositioned the ship north and anchored next to Sullivan Bay. Here, we walked over pahoehoe lava, rippled and smooth, on which Mother Nature had carved elegant folds long before the great sculptors mastered the technique in marble. One group decided to stay near shore and focus on their photography skills with our photography instructor; others walked the entire loop that took them behind a large, red cinder cone. We stopped for a minute and listened to silence, an increasingly rare commodity in this hectic world of ours.
Late afternoon, on our return to the ship, some Galápagos penguins started to leave the water and return to their homes on the lava. In the perfect light, we saw bright chests with dark freckles. One juvenile, slightly smaller, stood to one side on little pink feet with its parents nearby.
This delightful day continued into the evening with a sky-deck barbecue dinner and energetic dancing into the night. Phew!
