Located in the center of Galapagos, Santiago Island was one of the most visited places by pirates and buccaneers during 1700s and 1800s who used this island as a mandatory place to resupply their vessels with water and giant tortoises.
Early in the morning our guests disembarked on Espumilla Beach. The weather conditions were excellent with calm seas, soft winds and the first beams of sun illuminating the green beach, which was marked with a great number of sea turtle tracks from the previous night. Inland, the landscape changed completely. Observing giant “palo santo” trees, land birds and Galapagos hawks were flying in circles over our heads. We observed one of them landing close to us, approaching and opening its wings as if it was intentionally posing for a picture.
After breakfast, the ship was repositioned to Buccaneers Cove. There, our guests had different activities like Zodiac rides and snorkeling. The water was very clear with great visibility, which allowed us to observe colorful tropical fish such as King Angel fish, yellow tail mullets, grunts and Galapagos sharks. One of the best attractions was a huge manta ray swimming indifferently around of us, showing its white underparts and its long tail.
In the afternoon our first outing began by landing on the black sandy beach of Puerto Egas, or James Bay. In the distance we observed the last remains left by humans during the 1960s, when workers mined salt from an old and extinct volcano. Here, we had the chance to walk along the intertidal zone, discovering a great number of migratory birds such as plovers, whimbrels, ruddy turnstones, American oyster catchers and lava herons. The unmistakable noise of baby sea lions caught our attention many times. One of the most incredible parts of this walk was to observe female sea lions feeding their pups with care and tenderness.
Finally we arrived to the grottos, where many fur sea lions laid down on the black rocks or swam freely along those natural swimming pools. It was late and the last beam of sun illuminated the island, creating a colorful landscape as we headed the Zodiacs back to the National Geographic Islander. We remembered the incredible creatures we observed today, memories that will be with us forever.
