At midnight Captain Pablo Garces had our boson haul up the anchor and we began our navigation to the north and then to the west. By dawn we had anchored off the impressive field of lava that erupted from a low crater on Santiago Island in 1897. Our wellness specialist, Maria, led a group of guests in stretching on the sky deck on this lovely breezy and sunny morning. The rest of us slept in and at 0730 we all gathered for a bountiful breakfast.
The morning outings began at 0830 with a Zodiac cruise along the barren black lava coastline. We found marine iguanas, several striated herons, a blue footed booby, sea lions swirling next to our boat and best of all, a neat little Galapagos penguin that was fishing among a flock of noddy terns. He swam quickly and deep, popping to the surface for a fast breath and diving again. Then he stopped and floated and called with a soft donkey-like braying, letting us come just beside him in our Zodiacs. Fearless and cute he delighted our guests! Later some of us saw him out on the lava flow.
Back on board the ship we pulled on our wetsuits and grabbed our snorkel gear bags. We spent almost an hour exploring, having a marvelous water adventure! There were schools of thousands of 3 inch long black-striped salema and dozens of yellow-tailed razor fish. There were shy damselfish of a couple different species and hundreds of tiny red cardinal fish hiding among the rocks. We saw the pastel pink and green super-male and beige and blue female blue-chinned parrot fish and some of us saw a large diamond sting ray. The water was clear and warm and even those among us who were beginner snorkelers had a wonderful time.
In the afternoon we hiked on the northern section of the same 118 year old lava flow that we explored from the water’s edge in the morning. The varied, twisted and folded lava surface was beautiful and fairly easy to walk upon and we took countless pictures. Our guides pointed out the few sparse pioneer plants, among them a small endemic cactus, which has begun to grow on this lava field. In Galapagos, because little rain falls each year, it takes hundreds of years before the lava is broken down into soil which then many plants can colonize.
As the sun set behind a thick bank of clouds we returned to the ship. Tonight our video chronicler Jeff Litton showed us the preview of what he has been filming this week. It is amazing how much we have seen, experienced and learned in just these few days in the magical Islas Encantadas!
