Santiago Island
We started our day exploring the western realm of Santiago Island with a pre-breakfast walk on Espumilla Beach. As we arrived we were very lucky as we saw a female Pacific green sea turtle returning to the sea after laying eggs last night. This area is well known to be one of the most important nesting sites for green sea turtles, and the place was full of the female’s tracks and their nests. As the youngsters emerge from their nests they will go to the sea and will return to this place as adults to nest.
We continued with a walk through a mangrove forest which is found along the coast, and as we left it we encountered the tallest Palo Santo trees in the whole archipelago. We also reached a dry creek that was used in the time of the pirates and whalers to find a little bit of fresh water.
After this early walk we returned aboard and had breakfast while we moved to another area of Santiago Island. We arrived to Buccaneer’s Cove and went snorkeling, kayaking and had glass bottom boat outings along the very scenic coast of this cove.
This afternoon we sailed a short distance to get to Puerto Egas; here we went to a black sandy beach where we went snorkeling and had the presence of Galapagos sea lions and many colorful Sally lightfoot crabs that dotted the volcanic coastline with their bright red and blue colors.
Later on we had a great coastal walk and observed some Galapagos fur seals, a young American oyster catcher, Galapagos marine iguanas, lava lizards and brown pelicans fishing around the area. At the end of this day we enjoyed the great view of the coast and the waves bathing it.
