Santiago Island
Darwin visited the Galapagos Islands in 1835. His visit was short, just about 5 weeks, and he never came back, although his observations change how we see the world today. During his visit he stayed the longest on James Island, also known as San Salvador and Santiago.
Today we visited Darwin’s island. As usual we used every moment available for exploration! At 7:00 a.m. we had two outings: kayaking and hikers. Kayaking along the shores of Santiago is a unique experience, the eroded tuff cones have left the most interesting shapes for seabirds to use as platforms for their activities.
The hike took us to Espumilla beach, home of Darwin finches and flycatchers, some shore birds and the majestic Galapagos Hawk. We learned about the eradication program of goats. Santiago was the first big island where we succeed with this program.
The rest of the morning we enjoyed of Buccaneer’s cove. Santiago was a common stop place for visitors during the 1700’s and 1800’s. They could find water and food on the island: Water from the highlands, and food from the meat of the emblematic Galapagos tortoises. Buccaneer’s cove was a known anchorage site, we used it for our snorkeling and zodiac rides.
The afternoon we visited Puerto Egas, the shores carved by the waves are the perfect place to find fur seals and photogenic marine iguanas. Shorebirds love this area because the tide pools are full of small crustaceans that are part of their diet. Some shy ghost crabs appeared on the beach. But the highlight was on the disembarkation area where we had a spectacular display of Blue footed Boobies feeding, dozens of them flying and then in one movement disappearing in the surface of the water, and after some seconds going again and again.
The afternoon ended with another amazing sunset. And we… we were ready for a cocktail, a good dinner and a good rest to get our energy back for tomorrow!
