Today is the sixth day of our journey in the Galapagos Archipelago. This morning we found ourselves surrounded by small islets and rocks that gave an interesting shape to the distinct volcanic landscape. Sombrero Chino islet is a small cinder cone located next to Santiago Island.
The morning outing took place along the coastline of Santiago, which looked gigantic with its spectacular black lava field which is the result of the last eruption in 1897. From the Zodiacs we saw a dozen Galapagos penguins that were foraging in the shallow canal that separates Santiago from sombrero Chino. We also sighted lava herons, Galapagos hawks, marine iguanas as well as sea lions during this morning’s expedition. Later in the morning we went to a small white sand beach where we spent time with sea lions while others went snorkeling along the canal. The underwater world was abundant with different kinds of fish, rays, white tipped reef sharks and penguins.
After so much entertainment on this small island we came back to the National Geographic Islander to have a brief boat ride by a small volcano islet that has a crater lake. This brackish lake holds a small population of greater flamingoes. Our guests sighted many of these pink creatures that were nesting close to the lake from the sky deck. Later in the afternoon we landed on the southeastern side of Santiago Island on a visitor site known as Sullivan Bay. This unique place is fascinating for geologists due to the fact that we can walk over recent pahoehoe lava flow formations which is covered with interesting textures and tree molds on the surface. Our day was better than outstanding-Mother Nature treated us to a beautiful sunset while the night sky turned into different colors.
