See Part 1 of our Galapagos Cruise adventure here.

Espanola Island

When researching which Galapagos Islands cruise to take, we realized that we would be in the islands at the right time of year to see the waved albatrosses on Espanola Island, so we made it a high priority to find an itinerary that included this experience. On the fifth day of our cruise we woke to find ourselves anchored off Espanola.

Our activities started with a walk along a spectacular white sand beach. We saw plenty of sea lions and some depressions in the sand where sea turtles had laid their eggs.

After our beach walk, we snorkeled from the dinghies. We enjoyed the best snorkeling conditions we had experienced so far, with great visibility and calm water.

After lunch we sailed to a different part of the island. After a tricky landing on some rocky steps, we were ready to tackle the hardest hike of our Galapagos cruise. The first wildlife we saw after landing was many marine iguanas. They were easy to see when they were resting on the white sand. However, the iguanas on the rocks were harder to see and we had to be careful when walking over the rocks so we didn’t step on them.

As we moved away from the shore the trail became rocky and we had to tread carefully. Soon we saw our first albatrosses.

Along the trail we got a close-up view of a pair of blue-footed boobies.

Along with the bird life, we saw some rugged scenery, including a blowhole that sprayed water high in the air.

We soon came across some more albatrosses. We were there at the time the males were arriving on the island and meeting up with the females who had arrived before them. These birds have an amazing and elaborate courtship dance, and we got to see multiple pairs perform.

Although we had seen so much on the island itself, Espanola had one last surprise for us. Just before dinner we heard the call that a whale shark had been spotted. About half of the Solaris passengers scrambled to get into a dinghy. The nearest available crew member was the bartender, who jumped into the dinghy and grabbed the tiller wearing his dinner service outfit.

We saw the whale shark pass under the dinghy a few times, close enough to see the white markings on its back. The photos don’t really do justice to the experience, but we later found out that it is pretty much unheard-of to see a whale shark in Espanola. They are normally only seen near the far out islands that are only visited by dive cruises.

Returning to the boat we enjoyed dinner and the amazing color in the clear sky after sunset.

Floreana Island

The next stop on our Galapagos cruise was Floreana Island. This is one of the few inhabited Galapagos islands, although the sites we went to were well away from the inhabited area.

Our first activity was snorkeling from the beach. The highlight was seeing a penguin swim past (very quickly). After our snorkel we hiked, starting from the beach we had snorkeled from.

First, we walked through some dense vegetation to a fenced-off area where we could look across a large lagoon. We could see a pair of flamingos, and a couple of chicks.

Next we took a trail that led across the island. About halfway to the highest point of the we had a good view of a larger group of flamingos.

Continuing on, we came to a viewpoint which looked over the whole lagoon.

Crossing over to the far side of the island we came to yet another spectacular beach.

As well as the beautiful beach itself, we enjoyed watching sharks cruise past in shallow water, and rays playing in the surf, sometimes being uncovered as a wave receded.

As we turned to leave, we noticed a great blue heron standing serenely in the vegetation behind the beach.

Floreana – Afternoon

After lunch back on board the Solaris, our afternoon activities started with a dinghy ride through a shallow water area near the Floreana shore. We saw sea lions, turtles, boobies fishing with spectacular dive bombs, golden rays and baby eagle rays. Maria started to tell us a story about the historical inhabitants of Floreana (an intriguing murder mystery involving a bizarre love triangle) but was interrupted when we saw a penguin swimming in the water. We spent some time following it around. It moved surprising quickly, often ducking under the water and emerging in an unexpected place.

Eventually, Maria completed her story (see this link for all the details), and we finished our dinghy ride and landed in Post Office Bay. After a short wak we found a barrel that was used in historical times as a kind of voluntary mail service. Sailors calling in to the island would leave mail in the barrel for loved ones, and look through the accumulated mail and take anything addressed to someone in their home town or a port they planned to call into. The tradition continues among tourists that visit today. We looked through the mail in the barrel, but unfortunately, we didn’t find anything for an address on our planned itinerary, and we didn’t think we should take anything for Texas when we weren’t planning to be back there for more than a year.

The final activity for the day was snorkeling from the beach along the rocks. We saw lots of fish, a Galapagos shark and a very large turtle feeding on some seweed. While watching the turtle, sea lions came to play, swimming right at us as if they were jealous of the attention we were paying to the turtle.

So ended a day where we saw an amazing diversity of wildlife. Other than a Galapagos cruise, I’m not sure there’s anywhere you can see flamingos, penguins and sea turtles all in the same day.

Santiago Island

When I woke up the next morning in time to catch the sunrise, we were anchored next to the barren volcanic landscape of Santiago Island.

After breakfast, our first activity was a hike on the volcanic landscape, walking on lava rock formed 300-350 years ago. We saw didn’t see much evidence of life, just some lava lizards, lava cactus, and locusts. There were lots of interesting lava patterns and small lava tubes.

It was pretty hot on the lava by the time we finished our hike at about 10am. We were happy to get back on the dinghies to head back to the boat.

Our next activity was snorkeling along the rocky shore. We found a turtle, and while we were watching it, a penguin showed up, chasing small fish.

Bartolome Island

After lunch we prepared ourselves for another strenuous hike, this time to the famous viewpoint on Bartolome Island.