After a smooth navigation around the north of Isabela Island, we arrived at Santiago, the next stop in our Galapagos expedition. Also known as James Island and even Treasure Island, it has long been a favorite stopping point for seafarers, buccaneers, explorers and adventurers because of fresh-water springs near a good anchorage spot called Buccaneer Cove.
Early in the morning we dropped anchor not far from the cove by a beautiful beach named Espumilla, meaning “frothy waters,” as there is usually strong surf here. The color of the sand is pink-brown, and a beautiful row of mangroves borders it. This is an important sea turtle nesting beach and we found many leftover eggshells above the sand. The babies have already emerged and made it to the big wide ocean.
Some guests stayed with our photo instructor on the beach to make the most of the beautiful morning light and the peaceful area. Other guests ventured inland and through the very old mangrove and incense tree forests behind the beach. Many birds approached us, like small ground and tree finches, Galapagos mockingbirds and flycatchers. We could see and hear the Galapagos hawks in the distance. Many subtle Galapagos flowers surrounded us.
The island is very peaceful these days, after the Galapagos National Park Service removed a large population of approximately 30,000 goats some years back. Some adventurous kayakers had a chance to explore the coastline between Espumilla Beach and Buccaneer Cove. Here they spotted birds like blue-footed boobies, brown pelicans and herons perched on rocks.
The morning was full of activities so, after a well-earned breakfast, the guests were divided according to their preference into two groups: snorkelers and Zodiac riders. Buccaneer Cove has dramatic cliffs much preferred by sea birds like swallow-tailed gulls and brown noddies, and the beaches usually have a few sea lions. Snorkelers enjoyed clear blue waters with various fish species like parrot fishes, razor surgeons and creole fish.
Santiago offers magnificent landscapes, especially in James Bay, where black lava flowed not more than 250 years ago. Embedded in the lava are pottery shards left by pirates in the late 1600s. In 1835, Charles Darwin spent nine days on Santiago, where he thoroughly explored James Bay and probably saw much of what we see today.
By mid-afternoon, we landed at Puerto Egas, once a small settlement whose inhabitants used to exploit a nearby salt mine to export to mainland Ecuador. We followed a trail that let us admire a coastline unlike anything we had seen before: flows of pahoehoe lava mixed with tuff or cemented volcanic ash layers. This elegant coastline is inhabited by unique Galapagos species, particularly the marine iguana. At the area locally known as “the grottos,” where old lava tubes run into the sea, lives a small colony of Galapagos fur sea lions. Not as inquisitive as the other sea lion species, they inhabit places that offer them plenty of shade since they have a much thicker coat of fur.
We slowly made our way back to the landing beach, from which we could enjoy the equatorial sun setting behind the silhouettes of the young volcanoes of Isabela and Fernandina in the west. Yet another remarkable day in the isolated archipelago of the Galapagos.
