Galapagos - DAY THREE

DAY THREE – SANTIAGO ISLAND AND RABIDA ISLAND

Another day and we were again up at 6:30 after crossing the equator twice during the night. Again we awoke to clouds which eventually turned into sunshine later in the day.

Our landing at Santiago island was another wet one at least this time we wore our water shoes which made it much easier to put our walking shoes on later with less sand to contend with. This beach had black sand as a result of volcanic action on the island. Looking up we could see on the hillside the line where the lava oozed out of the earth and ran down the side to the ocean.

Here we watched a new born sea lion cub call for it’s mother, the sound was really very mournful. Mother goes away for several days fishing while the bull babysits. The little baby didn’t know any better so anything that moved he thought might be his mother thus he approached us without any fear. When we didn’t fill his needs he approached a baby pelican who didn’t appreciate him either. When finally he approached another mother he thought maybe he was home free until she too pushed him away so off down the shore he fled.

This was another walk along the seaside watching for what we could see. We discovered fur seals, sea lions, lots of birds and again we watched cubs playing in the water. Needless to say birds, birds, birds were at just about every turn. Paul is very good at explaining the flora also, on most of the islands the flora is very sparse.

Again I didn’t do any snorkeling, Bob did try but the waves were very big and scary so we enjoyed the water until the pangas came to pick us up. Those who were good snorkelers said there was a lot to see.

It was wonderful not to have any problems with climbing into the pangas for the ride back to the ship.

AFTERNOON

Rabida Island – The red island

Another wet landing but this time onto red sand!

Not too much to talk about as this was mostly a walk to enjoy the sights. Again the sea lions were all about on the shoreline and the pelicans in their nest were numerous. The walk up into the hills and down by the water had some spectacular views of the water.

After our walk we did a panga ride along the shore line, here we saw a 10 ft manta ray!!! After chasing the manta ray for about 15 minutes we went off in search of the blue footed Boobies, our namesake. If I hadn’t mentioned it before our group for tours on board was the Bobbies!!!

Next a race back to the ship to as we were last again, a quick clean up followed by another lovely dinner.