Today we visited Santiago Island, starting with Espumilla Bay and Buccaneer’s Cove in the morning, and James Bay in the afternoon.
We started our morning with pre-breakfast activities, splitting the group into kayakers, long walkers and short walkers. The bay was very calm, so kayaking was very enjoyable. Another group had a lovely walk along the beach, which is one of the many nesting sites of the east pacific green sea turtles. Long walkers, on the other hand, explored the interior of this island, passing by a brackish water lagoon where some scientists were studying the Darwin finches.
After everyone got back onboard, the National Geographic Islander moved to Buccaneer’s cove, this is where pirates and buccaneers used to land, searching for fresh water and giant tortoises in the highlands. A Zodiac ride and snorkeling excursion were offered. The group that explored the coast with the Zodiac had a great time observing the geology, the shore birds, and sea lions that occur here. The three groups that went snorkeling found a lot of fish life and even a couple of white-tipped reef sharks, in this fruitful underwater realm.
In the afternoon, we had an amazing walk at James Bay. This is an interesting place where people used to work in a salt mine back in the 1960s. After a wet landing on the black volcanic beach, we walked along the shore and found big groups of marine iguanas soaking up the heat. As we continued and reached the lava flows, sea lions and fur seals were also spotted. The weather was just right, and when we returned to the landing site, a marvelous sunset over Wolf Volcano was waiting, resulting in many excellent photographs.
It was a wonderful day with many activities, and even though we started early with a 6 am wake up call, it was definitely an enjoyable adventure and everybody had fun.
We definitely earned our sleep tonight, and tomorrow is another day. We are still on the road, ready for the next adventure!
