January 19, 2001

After a nights journey we awoke to the clatter of the anchor going down at James Bay on Santiago Island. As we approached the island largely covered with recent lava flows we spotted the remains of an old salt mine at Puerto Egas. British buccaneers used this bay as an anchorage during the 1600's as they found it an excellent area for firewood, water, salt and tortoises.

No people live here today but California sea lions, Brown pelicans and Great blue herons were on hand for our arrival.

We followed a trail along the bay headed for the Fur seal grotto. The grotto is a collapsed and flooded lava tube that provides some protection from rough seas for fur seals. It's a great place to just hang out.

Slightly inland we found the Galapagos hawk. They attack and devour a wide range of Galapagos animals including iguanas, lizards, doves and mockingbirds.

What a wonderful place to just sit and observe. and as we have seen before, no one can sit and out-wait a Yellow-crowned night heron.. Well, maybe a Lava heron can.

It was soon time to make our way back to the beach and await our panga ride home for lunch.

During our regular siesta time the Eric left James Bay and traveled around Santiago to the island of Bartolome. Here in the shadow of Pinnacle rock we swam with the sea lions.

We then proceeded to the landing site for a 60 minute hike to the top of the island. Before the climb our guide Roiel gave us a brief talk about the vegetation and the need to stay on the wooden steps and boardwalk.

Along the path we saw a lunar-like volcanic landscape of lava flows and spatter cones..

Then as it appeared a storm was approaching I was able to capture my favorite shot of Sullivan Bay.

Fortunately the storm never materialized and we were able to return "dry" to our panga with a little time left over before dark to search for some penguins..

As the sun started to go down we returned to the Eric . It had been another day of discovery.

Index — Ecuador & the Galapagos

Adventure Begins