Day: September 1, 2012

Galapagos, Day 11, Afternoon: Espumilla Beach & Buccanneer Cove, Santiago Island

Ecuador Trip: Day 11

Galapagos Cruise: Day 6, Afternoon

There are those who thought I’d never return to my travel blogging about our three-week adventure in Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands back in April. Some of you doubted me. Most of you doubted me. “Cindy’s forgotten us,” you thought. “That damn Cindy has left us hanging.”

I would never do that. I might take a break, but I would never hang anyone.

It is kind of unfortunate, however, that I took my travel-blogging break in the middle of a travel day. If you want to see what happened during the morning of Day 6 in the Galapagos (Day 11 in Ecuador), follow this handy-dandy link. Hint: We visited James Bay (otherwise known as Egas Port), Santiago Island. It was a totally amazing experience. Really, follow the link!

If you have a hankering to follow my Ecuador posts from the beginning of the trip, follow this link to get to the first post in the Galapagos 2012 Archives.

Okay, got that settled? You’ve followed the links, refreshed your memory, and now you want to know if I remember the rest of the trip? This is why we take pictures, my friends. Pictures bring back memories. And what I’ve forgotten, well, you know I’ll just make up. Let’s not call this an annoying aspect of my writerly personality. Let’s call it an Adventure for Your Brain! If you doubt the veracity of my anecdotes, you can research the facts yourselves. An excellent source is the new Galapagos Island travel blog started by naturalist Harry Jimenez, who was the guide during our foursome’s two-week cruise aboard the Cormorant. Harry blogs about the Galapagos experience as a whole. I’m blogging about my personal experiences. You can be assured he knows more than I do. But I’m cuter. You can make your decision from there.

Now, as I was kind of aware of before we left for our cruise, but as I became very aware of during our cruise, every island in the Galapagos has at least two names. In my posts, I use the island names I learned. In other words, the island names Harry J. told us during his evening lectures. For example, Santiago Island is also known as San Salvador (named after the first island Christopher Columbus discovered) and it’s also known as James Island. Santiago means “St. James.”

I prefer to use the Spanish island names. My mother has a Spanish first name and so does one of my aunts. They both have Spanish surnames, as did my maternal grandfather. So, you could surmise that I have a wee bit of Spanish blood, courtesy of my ancestors falling off the fleet of the Spanish Armada when Spain attempted to invade England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (at least that’s my story of how they came to land in England).

Well, there you have it. I am a mutt. Mostly English, some Dutch Mennonite by way of Russia, and about 5 other tidbits including Spanish. My husband says I can lay claim to nearly every nationality in the world, which ticks him off. But there it is. I can not help it if I’m a mutt!

After cruising around Egas Port (James Bay) on Santiago Island, we had a chance to snorkel at Espumilla Beach. This was one of our best snorkel days. All the snorkel pictures are Photo Credit: BP. This first photo is of a fish we were advised not to touch. Because see those three little dots near its tail? Take a look:


Apparently, those dots are very sharp and can cut you. I did not remember this from the previous evening’s lecture. I was reminded of it during the presentation following the snorkel. Fat lot of good that did me. Not that I tried to touch the beautiful blue fishies! But I certainly loved swimming amid them a lot:
Gorgeous! Now, who can name this pretty blue (if sharp) fish? I probably could, but that would require some research. If you can name it, I’ll toss you some chum the next time you’re around a shark.
Another lovely fish! I’m sure it has a proper name. I like to call it “yellow fish with blue.”
Another sea lion! We saw a lot swimming past us on this snorkel. My advice? Don’t try to catch the “air bubbles.” Because they might not be “air bubbles.” They might be something else, as certain other members of our party discovered (Travel Tip!). “Ewww, did you see what he just squirted?”

If watching sea lions frolic bores you, the one thing about snorkeling in the Galapagos is that you will never be bored for long. Just stick your head out of the water, and there’s a pelican!

“Well, hello.” Then dip your mask beneath the water again, and next thing you know, you’re spotting a ray:
Ray likes to be cool. Ray lounges along the ocean bottom pretending he’s the Starship Enterprise. He does not disguise himself as a shark. He leaves that to the sharks:
Okay, it’s not a Great White. No need for fear in the Galapagos. Only admiration.
A “sea star.” See, I can remember stuff.

We were having so much fun snorkeling that at first we didn’t notice it had started to rain, rain, and more rain. The sound of rain hitting the water while you’re exploring beneath is rather relaxing. Then you realize that the water is getting colder. Then you realize that your group is abandoning you! So we all clambered aboard the pangas and zippied back to the Cormorant. You can see the second panga following us in the picture below. The Cormorant was way, way ahead of us. We had quite a chilly ride and really appreciated the crew’s hospitality upon our return. 

Hot showers would have been quite lovely! However, this was around the time the water machine decided to go kaput. While we still had plenty of water, it was at a premium. Our next stop was supposed to be Buccanneer Cove, where British buccanneers would drop anchor in a picturesque bay and stock up on tortoise meat (I know, the horror, but it was a different time). There are several beautiful rock formations at Buccanneer Cove, and our itinerary called for a stop and a short walk along the sandy beach. However, considering the pouring rain and that we needed to hightail it back toward Santa Cruz to pick up parts before our next adventure at the amazing Genovesa Island, we were more than happy to have our guide point out the Buccanneer Cove rock formations from the “sun deck” of the catamaran:
Good-bye, Buccanneer Cove! It was a “fleeting” adventure. However, a lovely sunset awaited us, plus the promise of Genovesa, which we would visit the next day.
Just another evening in paradise!