National Geographic Endeavour set anchor right before first light this morning just off Espumilla Beach on the west coast of Santiago Island. A light breeze had picked up through the night and so we set off for an early morning excursion onboard our zodiacs making our way through a light chop. Some of our guests joined our photo instructor Juan Carlos for a photography themed stroll along the beach where they got to see brown pelicans and blue footed boobies in a feeding frenzy. Other guests took a faster pace hike through the inland where some lucky ones had a chance to see the Galapagos hawk from close up.
After a well deserved breakfast back on board we sailed just over a nautical mile north towards an area known as Buccaneer’s Cove. We would take the rest of the morning to have a closer look at this area while snorkeling, from our glass bottom boat, by kayak and from our sturdy Zodiacs. The very different landscape and the wildlife of the area was captivating and there was plenty of close encounters especially while snorkeling and kayaking with green sea turtles and many different species of colorful fish being spotted.
As the sun reached the highest point of its ecliptic in the sky we had made our way back to our floating home and started sailing south. National Geographic Endeavour’s next destination a few miles south was the anchorage at James Bay from where we would visit Puerto Egas at the southern end of the bay.
Here we had our second opportunity of the day for snorkeling while some of our guest took advantage of the landing at a beach to either sun bade or explore this beach where Galapagos sea lions regularly haul out to bask in the sun. Later on in the afternoon we regrouped for a hike along the exposed shoreline just south of the anchorage. The high tide had just pushed the marine iguanas above the wave beaten shoreline and as we reached some grottos at the southern most reach of our hike we got to have our first close up encounter with Galapagos fur seals which prefer the rocky shores to the open beaches for the easy access to shade during the hottest moments of the day.
We made our way back to our ship as the sun illuminated an orange sky that produced perfect silhouettes of Isabela and Fernandina Islands to the west of us. The last few breezy days have given us the odd opportunity of perfectly clear skies which are so rare during the dry season. I can only hope that we continue being as lucky as we have been so far during this expedition.
