Most of us were sleeping peacefully when Captain Pablo Garces had our boson haul up the anchor of the National Geographic Islander to begin our navigation. We travelled on a smooth ocean and dropped anchor just before dawn off the central island of Santiago. We awoke to discover an expansive barren black lava field that dominated the shoreline of the main island, and a small reddish islet shaped like a Chinese hat!
We ate a hearty breakfast of eggs benedict and tropical fruits and then boarded the Zodiacs with naturalists Fabian, Juan Carlos and myself to explore the rugged coast line. Alternately, a group of us joined naturalist Ben in the bright yellow kayaks to paddle along the shore. It was a wonderful outing and with the low tide we saw hundreds of brilliant red sally light foot crabs roaming the exposed tidal rocks, tiny dark striated herons fishing, pelicans, shear waters, noddy terns and boobies flying over us, and a few sea lions splashing in the shallows or resting on the rocks and beaches.
Back on board we wiggled into our wet suits for snorkeling from the Zodiacs in the turquoise channel between Sombrero Chino and Santiago. Three Zodiacs with naturalists headed out each one full of eager snorkelers, and they were not disappointed with this late morning outing! The water was chilly but very clear and we swam among thousands of fish or dozens of different species. We spotted huge sea stars on the rocks and on the white sand bottom and many of us saw a white tipped reef shark!
Meanwhile I took a small group of guests to the beach on Sombrero Chino where we were outnumbered: 6 sea lions and 5 humans. We too saw a shark: a very large and sleek Galapagos shark swam by the beach just off shore. We returned to the ship with and had all abroad by 1130, then cruised north, had lunch siesta, cap decorating for the kids and my talk about my PhD experiences before heading out for a lava hike in the late afternoon.
Everyone enjoyed the walk across an ever changing black flow of pahoehoe lave that we know dates from 1897. We took many pictures and were astonished at how varied and beautiful hardened, barren lava could be! We were delighted to find a couple of penguins on shore as we motored back to the ship. In the evening after a delicious barbecue buffet dinner on the sky deck I asked the Captain to turn off the ship’s deck lights and using a bright green laser pointer we admired the Southern Cross, Mars, Scorpio and the Milky Way.
