Santa Cruz Island
This morning we found ourselves on the other side of Santa Cruz, where we were able to see our next destination, Santiago Island. The day started sunny with some cirro cumulus clouds and a very light breeze. While landing on the black basalt at low tide, we saw quite some algae and seaweed exposed. Small marine iguanas were feeding on it, sharing with many other intertidal specialists, such as sally lightfoot crabs, several shorebirds, mollusks and many other small invertebrates. The light green algae not only makes a great color combination with the azure blue ocean, but it is cut short here by the daily browsing of hundreds of marine iguanas and green sea turtles. If not for these ‘gardeners’ we would see a very different intertidal landscape, knowing that these algae grow at a rate of about one inch per week!
After returning to National Geographic Endeavour we headed out right away for a deep water snorkel along the tuff cliffs of Guy Fawkes, a cluster of eroded tuff cones. Adorning the wall, which drops at least forty meters, are all kinds of benthic organisms, the most eye-catching being the sea urchins embedded in pockets just made for and by millions of generations. But all that beauty was forgotten when we were surprised by a large manta ray, graciously gliding by again and again. Having the largest brain-body ratio of the sharks, rays and skates, mantas actually are quite curious. It kept swimming by during all the time we were in the water. Personally I can‘t help but to get very excited when seeing this totally harmless giant, so my day couldn’t get much better.
After lunch we sailed past the charismatic islet group called Bainbridge, and after dropping the anchor we had another snorkel, this time along the shore of Santiago. This time we looked for small caves where white-tipped reef sharks were resting and admired the stark contrast between the relatively recent lava flows and the crystal white sandy bottom, frequented by many colourful reef fish and a penguin or two.
To top off the day we had a Zodiac ride along the shores of Sombrero Chino, a striking remainder of some violent volcanic action in the past. Sea lions, seabirds, a Galápagos hawk and a fresh breeze created the setting of this day’s end.
