Today the National Geographic Endeavour navigated through some of the most historic parts of the archipelago. The national park at Santiago Island became our visitor’s site for the day. This island was highly explored in the past by buccaneers and whalers, who were delighted to find such green and lush vegetation in the highlands, with a great amount of giant tortoises and fresh water. These important resources that helped them survive for years, sailing the Galápagos waters. Another important visitor of Santiago was Charles Darwin, who happened to explore almost the same areas that we explored today during our outings.
The day began with pre-breakfast walk on Espumilla beach, a beautiful mangrove ecosystem that lies along a red sandy beach with unique landscapes and a great diversity of land birds. This area is always a big hit with our nature lovers and photographers. Later in the morning, the National Geographic Endeavour anchored at Buccaneer’s Cove, where we set up aquatic activities for our guests. Deep water snorkeling trips, kayaking and glass bottom boating were offered to maximize the experience of our guests at this special site. The conditions for all the aquatic activities were favorable and let us explore the coastal ecosystem as well as the underwater world on Santiago; sea birds, big schools of fish and even a couple of white tipped reef sharks were observed.
In the afternoon, our guests were offered either to go to a black sandy beach to go snorkeling and enjoy the scenery with sea lions and sea birds, or to go on a nature walk along the coast of Egas Port. Both activities were quite pleasant, offering the chance to explore the intertidal zone of the area replete with wildlife, or to practice some snorkeling along a beautiful volcanic sea floor with sea turtles and marine invertebrates.
It was another wonderful day in the Enchanted Islands!
