From Baltra to Santiago and Rabida Islands

We traveled the short trip from Baltra to Santiago early in the morning and were ready for our first day of excursions. After a light breakfast we picked up our snorkel gear, met our guide Diego and made the short trip to Santiago where we had a wet landing (meaning we needed to step in the water to get to shore) on a black sand beach. We left our snorkeling gear on the beach and headed out for a .8 mile hike that crossed some uneven paths and sand. The walk ended at a black lava beach where we turned around and headed back to snorkel. Some of the wildlife we saw on the walk included the small Galapagos lizards, mockingbirds, Galapagos Doves, iguana, seals, Sally Lightfoot crabs, pelicans and frigate birds.

The scenery along the path was pretty spectacular too.

After returning to the ship we saw a huge pod of dolphins

Our afternoon time was divided between a tender ride along the cost of Rabida and snorkeling from a red sand beach. We saw baby sea lions sunning with their mothers, iguanas, penguins, an quite a few blue footed boobies. When the guides said you will take 300 pictures of one animal, they were not kidding.

We had an hour to snorkel in the morning and in the afternoon. While we didn’t see that much and the water was cloudy, the cool water felt great.

After dinner we went up to the top deck at the front of the ship where we saw thousands of stars from the Northern and Southern Hemispheres including to the south, the Southern Cross and to the north, the Big Dipper. The North Star was too far north to see.

We were headed north along the East side of Isabella Island and from a distance got to see lava flowing into the ocean from one of Ecuador’s 90+ volcanoes. We couldn’t get any photos but seeing the night sky with the Milky Way and the erupting volcano made a perfect end to a great day.

Tomorrow we spend the day on the west side of Isabella Island exploring the coast and deep water snorkeling.