Santiago Island
Today we visited Santiago Island, which one of the most historical places in the Galapagos. Many buccaneers, whalers and explorers have visited this island in the past. It used to be a popular place for collecting provisions, especially fresh water and giant tortoises; even Charles Darwin spent some time here exploring and collecting species.
Early in the morning before breakfast, we left the ship for a walk at Espumilla Beach. The giant incense tree forest and the great amount of sea birds observed along the coast made this visit unique.
After breakfast our guests had the rest of the morning for kayaking, snorkeling, zodiac riding and glass bottom boating at Buccaneer’s Cove. Many different types of species were seen, but the marine life of the area was the highlight, big schools of fish and a big marbled ray were found.
After lunch we repositioned the National Geographic Endeavour for the third time in the day to go to Puerto Egas. There, some guests landed a little bit earlier to go to the beach for snorkeling, some others landed later to go for a nature hike. We spotted a lot of fur seals and Galapagos sea lions along the coast. One of the great observations of the day happened here; a Galapagos hawk trying to get the placenta of a newborn baby sea lion.
All of the National Park visitor’s sites today fit perfectly with Charles Darwin’s description of the Galapagos in his famous best seller, The Voyage of the Beagle. We all felt like we saw the island through his eyes!
