The National Geographic Endeavour dropped anchor within the central region of the Galapagos. Today we are visiting Santiago Island, which was well visited by Darwin during his time in the islands.
We started early in the morning with a pre-breakfast outing, to walk along a beautiful beach and take the opportunity to photograph with the golden light of the early morning. While some of us spent time on the beach exploring our creativity in photography, others went for an invigorating hike further inland, in search of endemic birds and a large variety of flora.
After breakfast, we had several outings on the glass-bottom boat, a very good option for those who would like to see a great variety of fish without getting wet. While snorkeling, we were encountered a couple of Galapagos sea lions, who stayed for a while to play with us, as well as three white-tipped reef sharks, a large manta ray and several species of fish around the well-established rocky reef.
Kayaking along Buccaneer Cove was completely remarkable, and we were amazed to see all the geological features and the shapes created by the erosion. The titan cliffs with crevices and shelves are used by sea birds as rookeries. Boobies and noddies were the main attraction for this stimulating outing, as well as a few swallow-tailed gulls and Galapagos fur seals.
In the afternoon, our ship was relocated to the north western corner of Santiago Island, to visit the place where the naturalist Charles Darwin spent nine of his 19 days on land in the Galapagos back in 1835. Puerto Egas is rich in history and was inhabited by Ecuadorians, who worked on a salt mine before the islands turned this area into national park in 1959. The shoreline made out of basalt and tuff creates a great place for tidal pools to form, and Galapagos fur seal and migratory birds have established colonies and seasonal feeding grounds. As the sun was setting, the golden light of the afternoon reflected on every detail on the lava fields and wildlife to photograph. What a beautiful end to a fantastic day.
