Santa Cruz Island, 10/3/2019, National Geographic Endeavour II
Aboard the
National Geographic Endeavour II
Galápagos
Today National Geographic Endeavour II arrived early in the morning with the first light of the day to the southern part of Santa Cruz Island, called Academy Bay, in front of the charming town of Puerto Ayora.
Today we spent the whole day focused on the giant tortoises—in the morning we visited the Charles Darwin Research Station and, in the afternoon, the natural reserve El Chato to observe these unique giant reptiles in the wild.
Socrates was raised on Santa Cruz Island located in the heart of Galapagos Archipelago. He had a childhood filled with swimming, scuba diving, rock climbing and volunteering in conservation projects, so it was natural for him to grow very passionate ...
Rodrigo Moterani was born in Brazil, where he still lives. After spending his teen years playing with camcorders and VCRs, Rodrigo ended up working in the field of television journalism and video production in his home country. He graduated with a de...
Our new guests arrived yesterday and today was the first full day of our expedition in the Galapagos Islands. The first stop was South Plaza, where we disembarked very early in the morning to take advantage of wildlife being more active at that time. In Plazas you can observe a wide variety of wildlife, including yellow land iguanas, a large colony of sea lions, swallow-tailed gulls and their chicks, tropicbirds, and lava lizards. The afternoon started with deep-water snorkeling in the calm and clear waters of Santa Fe Island. Soon after we left the ship again, this time to explore this island by land and find the unique species that is found only here: the Santa Fe land iguana. It was definitely a great first day in this magical archipelago!
Today we explored Sullivan Bay, in Santiago Island, and Bartolome Island. In the morning we explored a relatively new lava flow, where we learned about the geology of the Galapagos during the early stages of these volcanic islands. In the afternoon we explored Bartolome Island, where we enjoyed unique moments spotting animals such as Galapagos penguins, sea lions, blue-footed boobies, and many sea creatures during our snorkeling activities. We finished the day celebrating the wonderful expedition we just had on board National Geographic Gemini .
Genovesa is considered one of the Galapagos crown jewels, and today it was showing off all of its splendor. Immediately after breakfast we put on our sturdy shoes and set out to explore Prince Philip’s Steps. This area is known for opportunities to observe not only large colonies of nesting Nazca and red-footed boobies, but maybe, just maybe, the short-eared owl which exhibits diurnal behavior on this island. After this walk we got ready for a dip in the Pacific Ocean and snorkeling along the inner coast of this caldera. The afternoon was equally amazing as we disembarked to explore Darwin Bay, along a short and easy trail that was packed with wildlife. Here we observed not only nesting frigatebirds, red-footed boobies, and Nazca boobies, but also a few yellow-crowned night herons. It was another incredible afternoon in the Galapagos Islands.
