Sunday - Santiago Island & La Rabida Island

Woke up in our new location - Puerto Egas on Santiago Island.  We have been so lucky to be cruising around and rarely seeing anyone else.  Thus far, we’ve only crossed paths with one small schooner with a small group of passengers sharing a harbor with us, and our time did not overlap much.  Victor told us that it was more likely that we were going to start seeing more people, and so he asked us to wake up for an early breakfast so we could get a head start on any others nearby.  

Unfortunately, we woke up only to see a huge ship - that potentially holds 100 people - blocking our view.  

Our baby boat is in back

We quickly hopped in the zodiacs to our first location for a short hike, hoping to beat the group to the island.  

Our fearless leader, Victor, and our trusty Zodiacs

Landing point

The big boat happened to have one group on land in front of us – they appeared to be a group of professional photographers as most held a camera with an enormous lens.  We have no idea what they were taking pictures of.  They actually ignored a baby sea lion that kept sneaking closer to the group, got within inches, and none of them even turned around.  The group seemed more interested in birds.    What devil creatures are these ignoring baby sea lions???  

Apparently, it is in bad form the the Galapagos to pass another group, so, despite us all bugging Victor to please pass them, we spent a LOT of time looking at crabs and birds waiting for them to move on. 

Sally lightfoots are still kinda cool

Crabs & tide pools

Some kind of mom bird sitting on nest with dad bird in background (I'm not so good with bird names)

Dad bird approaching to pick up the slack while mom bird gets a break

Dad bird swap complete while mom bird (background) takes a dip

Eventually, Victor asked for permission to pass and made our way (thankfully) to the clearest bluest water I've ever seen with even more sea lions.  

Crystal clear blue water

Group photo - me, Damon, Marvin, Elsie, Serena, Matt, Keetan, Pam

This time, we found a new breed called fur sea lions.  They look like little teddy bears.  Of course, as a group, we were in sea lion heaven.  Like normal people, we oo’d and ah’d, took a bunch of pictures, and carried on. 

Fur sea lions

Video of lazy sea lion trying to take spotlight from fur sea lions

We took a different path back to our launch site and were under full grasshopper attack for the second time.  We also crossed paths with a land iguana (all other iguana sightings to date have been marine iguanas) – this thing was huge, and a completely different shape and coloring than the marine iguanas. 

Not "quite" as creepy as marine iguanas

We got back to the beach and came across the most ridiculously close newborn sea lion that was just crying for its mom (video on Facebook).  Also caught an iguana making its unique tracks in the sand.

Before we woke the baby

If you watch any video today... here is a link to crying baby seal video

Iguana tracks

We had stashed our snorkel gear on the beach and proceeded to  grunt and groan as usual while suiting up on the beach, and did a walk-in snorkel.  

Group snorkel

Damon diving

The water here was clear and we saw a turtle, a sea lion, a million colorful fish, and right at the end, a small ray.  One of the more humorous incidents was when I thought I heard Victor, who was in the safety raft, yelling shark and pointing.  This group all changes direction and furiously swim toward where he was pointing as opposed to most people who swim away.  The sharks we expect to see in these parts are harmless – white and black tipped reef sharks and hammerheads.  Not only did none of us see any sharks, but it turned out he had seen manta rays leaping from the water and was yelling rays, not sharks.  Oh well.

Back to the ship for juice and snacks.  The juice was, as per usual, an unidentifiable combination of fruit, but also as per usual, very delicious.  Elsie, who speaks four languages and is completely fluent in English, was telling me that the juice had “anus” in it, you know, black licorice.  I had to explain that the very slight difference in pronunciation between anus and anise is critical, so we had a laugh over that one.  Either way, I think it was cinnamon…  We had a few hour cruise and siesta before getting to our next Island – Rabida – famous for its red sand beaches. 

In-room siesta approaching Rabida

Group obsession with frigate birds that just hover on the wind on/above/beside the ship

The first part of our activity was hopping in the kayaks again, following the coast for about ½ a mile, and then putting on our snorkel gear and riding the current back to the start point.  It seems to be a common phenomenon that putting married couples in kayaks together is a leading cause of divorce.  We love our spouses, but maybe kayaking is a singles activity.  We gave it a second go and concentrated hard on not murdering each other with our paddles.  

Damon with a murderous look in his eyes

We were much more in synch as we paddled the coastline and spotted one blue footed boobie and a hella lotta pelicans.  The water was crystal clear giving us the opportunity to see down to the shallow ocean floor below.  Serena and her mom (Pam) in one kayak had a sea line playing with their tie-up rope dragging in the water behind them.  When we finished the protected cove area, we geared up again for snorkeling and rode the current back.  Again, the water was incredibly clear so we could see a ton of colorful fish.  The highlight was when we heard “shark” again and we caught a glimpse of a white tipped reef shark.  It was gone in just a few seconds.  I think there is still hope for us on the shark front with two or three more days of snorkeling.

Before heading back to the ship, we did a quick landing on Rabida’s famous red sand beach and walked to a lagoon in hopes of seeing the resident flamingos, but apparently, our luck ran out and they were not there.  Back to the ship again for more juice and snacks, showers, and some time on the upper deck.

Crazy red sand beach

Snorkel-chic

Flamingo-less lagoon

Today was a very windy day and as we started the 3-hour cruise to our next island, the swells got big and the ship is rocking like crazy.  Do you have any idea how difficult it is to take a shower on a ship that is rocking back and forth?  Very difficult.  Luckily, there is a handrail in the shower to hang onto, so if you grab that, wedge your feet against two sides of the shower, you may only knock into the walls a handful of times.  We attempted another sundowner on the top deck, but we were rocking hard, it was impossible to stand up straight, and it was windy as heck.  I guess it is siesta time again!  

Link to Rock 'n Roll boat (featuring Keetan) & siesta time!

Our evening ritual continued with a daily briefing, dinner, and then everyone heading into rooms for early bedtime.  Tonight, that was especially important because we had a 6am excursion.  In Galapagos, each ship must follow a certain route and can be at spot only at certain times, so we are kept on a tight schedule.  There are also places that specifically require a high tide or a low tide or a particular time of day to see whatever cool thing there is to see.  In any case, we all turned in early as we cruised to our next island, Santa Cruz – the same place we started.

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