Tuesday, April 12th, 2022
This morning we were at Puerto Egas (Egas Port) on Santiago Island. Our landing this morning was a wet landing so we carried our hiking shoes in a dry bag. The yacht also provided us with a special cloth for wiping the sand off of our feet before we put on our socks and shoes! It really helped. Our landing was a black sand beach.
This was the only place where we saw Galápagos Fur seals. They are endemic to the Galápagos Islands and are the smallest of the eared seals. We saw them resting on the rocks or playing in the water!
There was an abundance of marine and land animal life this morning. Below are just a sampling from our morning walk!
This area had black volcanic formations and also rock crevices and tide pools. The shoreline was carved from the water into interesting shapes. This area provided homes for a lot of creatures.
After our hike we went back to the yacht to get on our wetsuits and grab our gear for a snorkeling adventure off of the dinghy.
The pictures below were taken by Fernando with Dave’s GoPro! The quality is so much better than our underwater camera. The variety of fish that we observed was unbelievable. Everywhere we snorkeled there was something different to see. We were blown away!
When we were finished snorkeling our chef on the yacht gave a ceviche demonstration. He taught us how it was made and Fernando interpreted for him because he doesn’t speak much English.
After Eddy, the chef, finished his demonstration, we then had some for lunch! It was delicious! Our yacht then sailed to Bartolomé Island. It was a small island and it is known for its Pinnacle Rock, it looked like an obelisk. It was a volcanic plug that was part of an eroded volcanic dike that once connected Bartolomé Island and Santiago Island.
We did an afternoon snorkeling from the dinghy near Pinnacle Rock. We were excited because we saw Galápagos penguins up on the rocks!
We were thrilled to have the penguins join us in the water and swam all around!
We observed a lot of sea life when we snorkeled both this morning and this afternoon. There was a blacktip shark, stingrays, and huge schools of fish.
We changed into our hiking clothes and shoes and had a dry landing for our hike on Bartolomé. We hiked up Escalera Hill where we saw lava bombs, spatter, and cinder cones. The Galápagos National Park Service built stairs (about 375 steps) for the climb.
Grey Matplant was found growing on the side of the volcano and is endemic to the Galápagos Islands.
The views from the top were awesome. We read that if it was a clear day you could see more than ten islands.
Once we were back on board the yacht, we had our briefing for tomorrow’s activities and also watched the last of the Galápagos Affair. It was another fantastic day in the Galápagos.