We woke up to a beautiful cloudy day, and started our day with a pre-breakfast outing, at “Espumilla beach” which is a black sandy beach off the cost of Santiago. Once on land, we spotted a couple of pacific green sea turtles nesting and plenty of turtle tracks along the sandy coast. Most of our group hiked further into the island, while some of our guests chose to go on a photography walk along the coast instead.
After breakfast, we offered a kayaking option as well as a Zodiac ride along the coast of Buccaneer’s Cove, where we had the opportunity to see some swallow tailed gulls, blue footed boobies, brown pelicans, and interesting geological formations as a result of erosion over the years. Some of us opted to go snorkeling, and a couple of white tipped reef sharks were spotted during the snorkeling outing, as well as a large variety of fish among the rocky reefs.
After lunch, we navigated to Egas Port, where we had a dry landing followed by a hike along the coast of Santiago, where the low tide had exposed several tide pools full of incredible life, and allowing us to observe interactions among predators and their prey. We spotted several migratory birds like ruddy turnstones and semipalmated plovers, among several marine iguanas feeding on the algae exposed by the low tide.
At the end of the hike, we got to the “grottos”, which are stunning collapsed lava tubes with ocean water flowing in and out of them). This stunning location is the perfect place to look for Galapagos fur seals, and sometimes regular sea lions are found coexisting nearby.
The tide was low during our afternoon visit, so we could spot a large variety of migratory birds, and we were able to enjoy the ecosystems created around the tide pools.
