Santiago Island, Galápagos, Ecuador
Wednesday, December 16, 2015
During the night the Anahi sailed around the top of Isabela and back into the Southern hemisphere. No pomp and ceremony this time though as it happened around 3am and we all said "no don't wake us this time please!"
Our first excursion today was an island with a black sand beach. Santiago.
Roberto told us to dress for a wet landing - meaning jumping out the boat onto the beach in the waves and yes we all remembered our sun hat, sun protection, insect repellant, camera and our smiiiiile!
The beach was beautiful. The way the sun light reflected off the wet sand was fascinating.
black sand
Roberto pointed out a solitary house further down, all abandoned years ago and explained it belonged to a salt miners but the Galapagos salt industry failed when other countries started producing salt far more cheaply. So decades ago the miners moved away and left this house behind. Good thing too we say.
Roberto took us along the beach and as always pointed out the names both local and Latin for us (we are not looking forward to this test at the end) of all the birds and plants along the way. We saw a Blue Heron stalk and catch a lizard, an Egret crossed our path too. As always countless lizards scampered around our feet. And something we hadn't seen anywhere else; a Galapagos Dove. Very pretty bird.
Eventually we came to the beach which as always was littered with baby sea lions and marine iguanas. It is again a lava flow and Roberto told us all about this type of lava and how it differs from other lava - did you know there are 3 different types of lava?
One of the phenomenon Roberto pointed out has been named Darwin's Toilet. It is a natural blow hole which as the waves come in, it fills it up, then as the waves go out again, it empties just like it's been flushed. Funny!
Whilst we were here, an excited cry went up from another group that was here. We all turned to look at what was going on and a small bird - a Galapagos Fly-Catcher, had landed in the lense of a man's camera. It stayed for sometime too admiring itself in it's reflection. That was very funny too.
Roberto & his friend
Roberto also got very excited when he saw a Galapagos Hawk on some rocks and told us it was one of his favourite animals here. It must be very hard to pick a favourite from all the choice available but what a choice eh?
Then he led us back towards the path leading to the Anahi but he was acting very strange. Rummaging around in the rocks saying he was looking for his old friend. A bit alarmed thinking he was looking for bones we asked him what it was specifically he was looking for. My friend a special rock he was saying. Then his face lit up and he found him. Pedros. He got very excited and proceeded to use Pedros to tell us another story about lava. Typical we should have guessed he was educating us again!
We made our way back looking at more beautiful lava formations along the way - and past a pile of white feathers that we suspect was the beautiful egret we saw earlier - they were in the same spot, and it probably fed that beautiful Galapagos Hawk we saw earlier too.
Then it was back to the Anahi for some snacks and some snorkelling around and under the boat to cool off. The Anahi moved further along again ready for lunch and a short nap for most of us. All this fresh air and education id very tiring you know.
The Red Beach on Santiago
This afternoon was another snorkel at our new spot and we made our way along the cliffs where there was plenty to see. The water here was the clearest so far and we could see a long way under the water. It was more like swimming in an aquarium here it was beautiful.
We ended up on the red beach which was beautiful. One side of this small island is black and the other is red. Amazing!
More delicious snacks were waiting for us on the Anahi before we all showered again and got warm before jumping back in the dinghy back to the red beach. Without doubt this is not a cruise for relaxing on. It seems as if every 30 minutes we are off somewhere new or have a new activity, we are so tired at the end of the day we ought to be able to sleep through a hurricane really!
We set off in the dinghy but someone had left their shoes behind. So halfway to the red beach our dingy turned back so she could get them. This only added a few minutes delay but we were to realise later, it was providence!
The walk up the volcano from the red beach was once again, so vastly different from any other we had done so far. And of course beautiful. Every island is different and every walk is different. It is difficult to believe we are even on the same island sometimes the contrast is so different. Like today - such a small island (just 226 sq miles) but so contrasting from one side to another.
beautiful flamingo
As we were making our way back to the dinghies Roberto said it was such a shame, we had paused by a small lagoon which he said occasionally was home to a small group of flamingos. But not today it seemed. Then, just as he said that, a solitary flamingo flew in and landed right in front of us - WOW!
If we hadn't had to return for those shoes we would have left and missed this.
We stayed quite a while as Roberto was also explaining about the Mockingbirds. He said they have learned that visitors carry water and have started hanging around for it. But under no circumstances must we give them any - the evolutionary process will be affected and before we know it they will be asking for a $ for a photograph! This man is loco!!
Dinner was again very nice and the crew had put up balloons and ribbons for Jody's birthday - it's a few
days early but it was nice to share the occasion with other people, especially when they
brought the birthday cake - it was huge so we needed everyone else to help eat it!
The end of another busy day and we were exhausted again but with only 2 more days on this amazing trip we are not complaining.
We really don't want it to end....
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