Santiago Island
Our world is full of surprises created by the magic of nature, a magic that takes you back in time millions of years. There is no other place on earth where human and animals have found a point in between to coexist; here in the Galápagos, Charles Darwin was one of the most important visitors who opened his eyes to explore the creation of species in nature. Therefore we navigated these well-visited seas to explore places where Darwin had walked and to see what Darwin had seen while he was in the enchanted archipelago.
We dropped anchor on Espumilla Beach, an expedition site located on Santiago Island. We started a pre-breakfast hike among mysterious mangrove forests which were guarded by a young Galápagos hawk. Mangroves and red scoria cones contrasted the landscape and plenty of endemic species of plants were found along the trail. Santiago is one of the islands where we have had some local extinction of plants due to the introduced feral goats that once inhabited this island; recently, 80,000 goats were eradicated from this island with the strong efforts of the Galápagos National Park Service.
After breakfast, an outing to explore the deep blue was offered, to the well-known and historical Buccaneer’s Cove. Pirates and anyone who sailed in the Galápagos used this cove as protection against rough seas. Many interesting species of fish were sighted here, as well as some rays. Some of us had the opportunity to kayak or even zodiac ride along the very titanic cliffs around this cove.
For the afternoon outing we visited Egas Port on Santiago Island, where Darwin spent nine days collecting different specimens and discovering life with the true eyes of a scientist. We saw Galápagos fur sea lions at the grottos, night herons resting on the lava cliffs and a wide variety of shore birds feeding on the fish in tide pools.
The National Geographic Endeavour left Santiago behind to continue on our expedition.
