Today after a beautiful sunrise we found ourselves anchored next to the southern coast of Santiago Island close to Sombrero Chino Islet. Our morning adventure started before breakfast with a panga (Zodiac) ride to observe the geology and wildlife of this area. Our guests were impressed by the interesting, small volcanic cones that covered the landscape. At this point our guests had the chance to learn about the unique geological formations of the Galapagos Islands. We also encountered a few Galapagos penguins that were perched on the rocks at the shoreline, striated herons and a graceful Great blue heron that were fishing next to the coast.
After our costal exploration everybody returned to the National Geographic Islander and immediately got ready to snorkel. The snorkeling adventure was very fun since we observed a great diversity of fish, including Blue chin parrotfish, Pacific creole fish, Scissor tailed damselfish, Black striped salemas and others. After snorkeling and before lunch we also had time to spend on a tiny, but very pretty white sand beach. It was time for lunch so we headed back on board.
Right after lunch our guests had the chance to attend a talk given by Tom Barlow, a National Geographic Islander guest, on the Evolution of Music.
The action began again at 15:00 with three groups of nature hikers that went ashore to explore a remarkable lava flow a little more than a hundred years old, an extensive area on Santiago Island known as Sullivan Bay. At this site everybody had the chance to hike over patches of smooth “pahoehoe” or ropy lava and avoiding the sharp and cracked patches of “aa” lava. As everybody hiked over this impressive lava flow we encountered some pioneer plants such as Lava cactus and Mollugo plants that survive in this harsh environment. During the hike our guests got really close to cinder and spatter cones and of course learned about their interesting formation process. It was already 5:30 pm and we returned to the National Geographic Islander for our nightly reception hour and dinner.
