Santiago Island, 3/13/2025, National Geographic Delfina
Aboard the
National Geographic Delfina
Galápagos
Today we visited the island of Santiago. In the morning, we explored the coastline of Puerto Egas and also spent some time on the beach observing the friendly creatures resting on the rocks.
In the afternoon, we explored Buccaneer Cove by kayak, snorkeling, and Zodiac riding. The western side of Santiago offered remarkable moments observing wildlife and great moments for photography.
Javier grew up on Santa Cruz island where his grandparents first arrived in the 1940´s. Veritable pioneers, his grandparents settled in the highlands where they found a place to raise their children.
It is the third day of exploration in the Galapagos and today we are visiting the mysterious island of Floreana. In the morning, we visited the historical Post Office Barrel where our guests took part in the tradition of leaving and selecting post cards for hand delivery upon their return home. After the barrel, some guests enjoyed a snorkeling session with baby sea lions while our guest John decided to go for a Zodiac ride and saw dolphins and other animals. In the afternoon, we visited Punta Cormorant and enjoyed a leisurely walk along the beach where the highlight was finding flamingos. This particular encounter was special as we found a vagrant Chilean flamingo hanging out with the Galapagos grater flamingos. It was another successful day full of adventure on the islands.
On the second full day of our expedition through the Galapagos Archipelago, National Geographic Delfina arrived at Española Island. In the morning, our guests enjoyed some beach time accompanied by Galapagos sea lions in Gardner Bay. A beautiful beach with turquoise waters and powdery sand offered a great place to spend the morning. In the afternoon, we visited Punta Suarez, one of the most diverse places in the Galapagos. While walking over lava boulders, passing by majestic cliffs and sandy beaches, our guests were truly impressed seeing the plentiful wildlife in the area. Waved albatross, Galapagos hawks, blue-footed boobies, Nazca boobies, Galapagos doves, Darwin finches, marine iguanas, and Española mockingbirds, were among the species that we were able to enjoy and photograph until the sun went down.
On board National Geographic Delfina we kicked off our expedition visiting the capital of the archipelago, San Cristobal Island. We started with an early hike up to Punta Pitt hill and our guests were astonished with the landscape and wildlife. We spotted blue-footed boobies right in the middle of the path, many red-footed boobies perched on the trees, frigatebirds, and mockingbirds. Once back on the beach, the snorkeling was amazing, with sea lions joining us for a swim, and we even found an octopus! In the afternoon while navigating to Cerro Brujo, we had an amazing encounter with a large pod of dolphins bow riding with us for more than half an hour. We arrived at our destination soon after and our guests had a relaxing time on the beautiful beach of Cerro Brujo. To finish a spectacular day, we returned to the ship to circumnavigate Kicker Rock accompanied by a beautiful sunset and a full moon.
