Santiago: A charming Island inside the “Encantadas”

Compartir

Nearby the Santa Cruz (Indefatigable) Island is found the Santiago (James) Island, located at the center of the whole Galapagos archipelago. With a size of 590 km² (366mi), this attractive place offers tourists the most charming spots to enjoy different activities.

Armed with an adventurous spirit, you will witness beautiful natural sceneries existing only in places such as the following:

•     James Bay (Puerto Egas): Located in the west side of the island, this place has a beach of black sand in which large colonies of sea lieons rest by the crystalline waters of the sea, which are perfect for swimming, snorkeling or scuba diving. Magnificent sharks, as well as a great variety of colorful little fish can be observed going deep down these waters. Behind the beach, there is a path that leads to the surroundings of the wide crater of the Pan de Azúcar volcano.

•    Buccaneer Cove (Caleta Bucanero): Found north of Puerto Egas, this place is home of a beautiful beach of brown sand and natural landscapes of large, high cliffs in which you can observe numerous species of seabirds, as if all the birds of the island had a meeting right in that spot. Long time ago, this place was used as a safe refuge for whalers, pirates and sailors.

•    Espumilla Beach: Located to the southeast of the island, this beach has quite exuberant vegetation compared to other regions of the island, which makes it the favorite nesting spot for sea turtles. If you get luck, you can witness this Nature’s unforgettable spectacle. Very close to the coast, going inside the island just a little, there is a large area of mangrove swamps, home of an endemic bird very hard to find: the Galapagos Hawk, who only a few people will get the opportunity to observe. Nearby the swamps is also a lake in where beautiful white and pink flamingoes live together with a variety of small birds.

•    Sullivan Bay: Found to the east of the island, this place has a peculiar beach of white sand in which the large colonies of fur seals can be observed. This seal species has a very sweet appearance due to the two types of fur it has, one longer than the other. Leaving the beach behind, you will find a 1.5 km (1 mile) path in which soon you will find yourself surrounded by wonderful lava fields. A place where long ago there was nothing but fire is now the home of one marvelous creature: the black marine iguana.

With places like these, Santiago is one of the most diverse and charming islands of the Galapagos. It is a central point where the most beautiful beaches of different colors, the most fascinating aquatic life, abundant vegetation and many other interesting species have gathered together. The island’s privileged location is a great starting point for visitors, since it will encourage them to keep on discovering this unique and impressive archipelago.

Photo: Villamette University

Caleta Tagus: Follow the Pirates’ Steps through Volcanoes and Lava Pathways

Compartir

In the Isabela Island, going southwest from the Darwin volcano, you will find a 1 800m (1 mi) pathway that is known to be one of the island’s most interesting places to visit. It can only be accessed by going through a large sea corridor called “Caleta Tagus”. Already from the beginning, as the ship gets closer to steady land, a crowd of penguins, iguanas and cormorants welcome visitors as an anticipation of what will come next.

The pathway, mainly made of gravel, leads to the inside of the island, going around the Darwin Lake. It can be divided into three sections:

1.    The Steps: This is the historical part of the tour, in which you go up about 200m (650 feet) of wooden steps, climbing the hillside of what once was a volcano. In the way, you will find a cave in whose walls the writings left by whalers and buccaneers from the 20th Century can still be seen.

2.    The Darwin Lake: This part of the road goes around the Darwin Lake through a volcanic territory of impressive landscapes. During the hike, a great variety of terrestrial bird species can be seen, and the typical vegetation of this arid area can be appreciated at the Palo Santo Forest.

3.    The Lava Fields: This is the final section of the tour. It is large field of petrified lava providing a great volcanic view that can only be seen in the Galapagos. Here, you will find the famous “petrified raindrops”, which are little round rocks made from the rain mixed with volcanic ashes that have hardened through time.

The name of Caleta Tagus was given to this place in honor of an English warship that passed by the islands in 1814 looking for Galapagos turtles to eat. Nowadays, it is a place full of history, evolution and contrasting landscapes. Caleta Tagus has been one of the tourists’ favorite destinations; and it undoubtedly remains a must-see for people visiting the Galapagos Islands.

Photo: Balabiot

The Fernandina Island: A Unique Island in an Enchanted Place

Compartir

Fernandina (Narborough) is a million years old, and yet it is the youngest of islands. It is considered the Galapagos’s most exotic island. It measures only 642m² (0.4 square miles), it is the farthest west of the archipelago’s islands, and the only one that is not inhabited by humans. This island is home of the biggest colony of marine iguanas and flightless cormorants, and its incomparable beauty makes it one of the world’s most exclusive and unique destinations. 

In Fernandina, the rule is not to alter the ecosystem. This extreme place is definitely a monument to survival. If you watch it from above, you can see that the island is in fact the tip of a volcano partially submerged in the water, a volcano that remains active and is frequently erupting. Fernandina is a place where creatures have managed to survive in such harsh conditions and have made this land of fire their home.

One of the most amazing of these endemic creatures is the marine iguana, who has unexplainably learnt to swim in view of the lack of food in the surface. With an incredible agility, it dives to the bottom of the sea to eat the algae attached to the rocks. As a curious fact, Charles Darwin considered these animals repulsive due to their prehistoric appearance.

Another wonderful creature of the island is the flightless cormorant, the only one of its species who has lost its ability to fly. Nonetheless, this bird has managed to survive by diving to incredible depths to get its food. Having tiny wings useless for flying, the flightless cormorant has developed strong legs that allow him to easily do these dives at high speeds. The island’s conditions in the past may have caused the fish to go deeper into the water, forcing the cormorant to develop that hunting technique.

Fernandina is a highly protected place that people can only get to know in momentary visits to an area called Punta Espinoza. It is a place full of magic and ruled by wildlife. Swimming birds and iguanas are a good sign of adaptation to harsh conditions. If you get lucky, you may see other extreme creatures, like the only cactus in the world that emerges from dry lava, and you can even snorkel with the only penguin species that can survive in tropical temperatures.

Photo: lightmatter

Post Office Bay: A Postal Service with Two Centuries of History

Compartir

Imagine receiving from an unknown person that has traveled from a little pacific island directly to your home, a letter written by a loved one who has used the same mail delivery system once used by sailors and pirates of the 18th Century. This is only possible in the Floreana Island, at a place called Post Office Bay that has been operating for two centuries.

In 1793, due to the sailors’ needs to communicate with their families back home while they were away hunting whales at the Galapagos Islands, the Royal British navy officer James Colnett decided to establish a letter delivery system based on a simple premise: “Everyone can drop off his letters, but he must also take the mail having his same destination and deliver it to its addressee”. Colnett installed a wine barrel as a mailbox and everyone followed his system. As they arrived to the island, the ships would drop off their correspondence and pick up the one they could deliver. Nowadays, that mailbox at the Floreana Island is still working, but this time the 217 years old tradition is kept alive by tourists.


Ironically, the Post Office Bay sometimes works faster than the normal postal service, and it is way more convenient because it is for free. So go on and send a letter to your loved ones while visiting the islands, it will surely be a nice surprise for them and become another reason to fall in love with the Galapagos Islands!

Photo:  Pictures from Heather

Diving in the Galapagos: An Adventure among Corals and Algae

Compartir

The Galapagos, one of the World’s seven underwater natural wonders, is considered a diving paradise. Selected as one of the World’s 10 best diving spots year after year, the Galapagos has always welcomed visitors willing to practice that sport.

The island’s several diving centers are all managed by renowned international professionals (generally certified by PADI) with top modern equipment. Visitors are required to have an intermediate or advanced level certificate (30 or more immersions) and a preliminary dive at the Ayora Port Bay, since the place is only available for those with enough experience.

There are almost 30 diving spots in the islands, giving plenty of choices to divers. Among the best are the Caamaño Islet, the Lobería Island and the Punta Carrión, at Puerto Ayora Port. For the more experienced divers, there are spots such as the Gordon Rocks, located east of the Santa Cruz Island; and the Darwin and Wolf islands. The best time for diving in the Galapagos is from December to April, when the waters are calmer and the temperature agreeable, although the chances of finding a whale shark are low during that time compared to the rest of the year, when the water is colder and the wind stronger.

Once submerged, the diver will discover the island’s underwater world: a wonderful sight of sea turtles, penguins and sea lions swimming next to hammerhead sharks, whales, manta rays, dolphins and tropical fish. A silent world in the immeasurable sea inhabited by corals and algae, starfish and sea urchins. The variety of tropical fish (including some species not existing anywhere else) is so great that the renowned oceanographer Dr. Sylvia Earle described the Galapagos as “the fishiest place on Earth”. Most of the underwater species are not afraid of human contact, so divers can often see turtles, sharks and rays coming closer, making the diving experience a magical memory.

This marine life sanctuary and biosphere reserve –as declared by the Unesco– is one of the world’s most exciting and unique diving spots due to the variety of its waters. Far from being the typical tropical adventure, the cold Humboldt Current and the warm Cromwell Current that mainly rule life at the islands, produce continuous and unpredicted changes to temperature, water’s strength, visibility and marine life… making the Galapagos a true challenge and a privilege to those who get the opportunity to dive into its waters.

Photo: 88rabbit