Today we explored the island of Santiago in the central realm of Galápagos. We began our day exploring the western region of this island; here we went on a hike on Espumilla beach, which is one of the most important nesting sites for green sea turtles. As we started our walk we found the top predator in the archipelago, the Galápagos hawk. During our hike we went through an amazing mangrove forest where we found some Galápagos mockingbirds; also, the landscape was outstanding.
After this invigorating hike we returned to the ship for breakfast, meanwhile our captain repositioned the ship to Buccaneers’ Cove. Here we had several options: we kayaked, snorkeled, took several rides on our glass-bottom boat, and also had a scenic Zodiac ride along the coast.
After an exciting morning we navigated towards Puerto Egas; there we landed on a black color beach where we went snorkeling or for a stroll along the shore. Later on we walked along the trail on Puerto Egas and as we reached the coast we found several groups of marine iguanas in their territories; males specially were more colorful and aggressive while females gathered around them. This afternoon we also found several species of shore birds such as sanderlings, least sandpipers, semi-palmated plovers, whimbrels, and American oystercatchers. We were also delighted to find a very young Galápagos fur seal nursing from its very small mother.
At the end of the afternoon we returned to the ship and watched the moon rising as the sun was setting at the horizon—it was a spectacular way to end our day.
