Santiago Island
James, or Santiago, is the fourth largest island in the archipelago. This is an iconic island for Lindblad Expeditions as we adopted it several years ago. What do we mean by adopting an island? Well most of the donations that our guests have been giving over the years have been gone to projects to restore this unique ecosystem of Santiago Island.
Even if James is not an inhabited island, we have had human activity here for centuries. Santiago was a common stop for whalers, pirates, and buccaneers in the 1800’s. After Ecuador claimed the islands in 1832, we had a salt mine here for many years. Santiago suffered from the effects of introduced species and our endemic species started losing the battle: Land iguanas went extinct and giant tortoises decreased their numbers. Among conservation programs in Galápagos, one of the goals is to restore Santiago. A couple of years ago we succeed in the eradication of goats on the island. Today we are working against the black rats.
In the morning we visited Espumilla beach, an early hike on a Palo Santo forest was accompanied by the songs of warblers and finches. It was a great spot for land birds including our top land predator: The Galápagos Hawk. The rain of the last couple of days woke up all the seeds that waited through months of dryness and now all is green. Snorkeling was a highlight on Buccaneer’s Cove; thousands of black striped salemas covered the volcanic reef. Blue-footed boobies dove to catch them. White tip sharks, spotted eagle rays, golden cow rays, and a manta Ray were spotted.
After a very informative talk about Darwin and his journey to the Islands, we disembark in Puerto Egas. Darwin spent most of his time in the Galápagos on Santiago Island. We were refreshed by a few minutes of rain and enjoyed of a very nice hike along the shore where fur seals rested.
Sunset filled the air with pinks and reds, and a rainbow was painted on the sky as a farewell from this iconic island.
