At midnight we began our navigation to the north and west towards the central islands of the Galapagos archipelago. Just before dawn Captain Patricio Jaramillo dropped anchor off the extensive black lava fields of Santiago Island. Maria, our wellness specialist, and a small group of our guests did some yoga stretches on the sky deck; a lovely way to begin their day on this sunny morning. Most of us enjoyed the chance to sleep in and were woken by hotel manager Alexa’s announcement at 0730 that breakfast was ready.
We boarded the Zodiacs and cruised along the barren black lava coastline in search of penguins! We were delighted to find them both in the water and later on land. We also spotted marine iguanas, several striated herons and of course, many bright red Sally light foot crabs. The landscape was spectacular, with white sand beaches tucked among black lava rocks and lapped by turquoise waters. A light breeze made the outing pleasant and we were all looking forward to snorkeling by the time we returned to the ship.
We wiggled into on our wetsuits, grabbed our snorkel gear bags and loaded three Zodiacs with eager snorkelers. We spent nearly an hour in the water and had an outstanding water adventure! There were dozens of species of fish: yellow-tailed razors, black striped salema, king angels, puffers, cornet fish, and damselfish etc. etc. There were hundreds of tiny red cardinal fish hiding among the rocks, and three white- tipped reef sharks sleeping in a cave. Some of us saw a marine iguana grazing on the marine algae and many of us had the privilege of swimming along beside some unbelievably cute and fearless Galapagos penguins! We saw the pastel pink and green super-male and beige and blue female blue-chinned parrot fish and a huge marbled sting ray swam beneath us. The water was clear and a bit cooler today and everyone had a wonderful time.
A group of guests went to a small picturesque white sand beach with Enrique and enjoyed swimming and photographing. Snorkelers and I joined them on the beach and we, in turn, were also joined by two penguins who swam among us and darted up and down the beach in the shallows repeatedly.
After the afternoon had clouded up and cooled off, we set out to hike along the northernmost section of the same lava flow from 1897 that we had explored from the water in the morning. This pahoehoe flow has a marvelous, varied, twisted, folded and textured surface that is fairly easy to walk upon and was great for photos. There are a very few pioneer plants, including an endemic cactus, growing on the lava field and since the rains have finally begun this season, the vegetation is greening up.
The sun set with pink rays and an orange glow behind the island of Santiago. During cocktail hour, video chronicler Dexter showed us his preview of this week’s video. We are looking forward to visiting the northern island of Genovesa and one more outing in the magical Islas Encantadas!
