Early this morning we arrived to Espumilla beach located in the west coast of Santiago Island. This bay has one of the most important nesting grounds for green sea turtles. Our day started with a pre-breakfast walk and as we landed we encountered a couple of female green sea turtles heading back to the sea. At this time of the year, sea turtles are starting their mating season and we are noticing this by observing the many fresh sea turtles tracks and nests on the beaches. As we started to get further inland we also found Galapagos hawks, Galapagos mockingbirds, and several finches.
After our early walk we returned aboard to have breakfast and navigated to Buccaneer’s Cove where we went snorkeling along its dramatic cliffs. There we observed several species of colorful fish such as parrot fish, Mexican hogfish, king angel fish, razor tailed surgeon fish, as well as sea cucumbers, and sea stars. Some of our guests also spotted a white tipped reef shark swimming along the cliffs. We also had outings on our glass bottom boat, while some guests went kayaking in the same bay.
After lunch we navigated a short distance to Puerto Egas, also known as James Bay. There we went snorkeling for a second time. Later in the afternoon we walked along the coast to look for Galapagos fur seals, Galapagos sea lions, marine iguanas and several migratory shore birds. As we headed to the interior, the landscape was different with deciduous trees such as the incense trees which look dry and leafless. This species is dormant at this time of the year, and will become green by the end of the year when the warm, wet season starts again.
We returned aboard and had a very colorful sunset to end our day on Santiago Island.
