Santiago and Rabida

Rabida
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First stop of the day:  Puerto Egas, Santiago.  The beach we landed on had a very interesting rock formation on the right side.  If you use your imagination, it looks like an iguana!  Speaking of iguanas, we got to witness a long iguana fight (lots of head-bobbing, circling, wrestling, and some biting) and iguana sex (not as exciting, actually).  It is funny to see the iguanas fight over their own personal territories, considering that no matter what the outcome, more iguanas are always going to be in very close proximity because their "territories" are so small.

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I thought the beaches on this island were gorgeous, there was some sort of green moss growing along the shoreline plus there were really interesting rock bridges further out.  We enjoyed walking over them and peering down into the pools of water formed by them.  The ocean still crashed in and out of the pools of water, it was quite spectacular.  We also walked by some old wood left over from a salt mining operation in the 1920's and 60's.  Hector Egas left some of his workers behind and one man stayed for four years!

Rabida: The red island

Iguana-rock at Santiago
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In the afternoon we had our excursion to Rabida, the "red island".  It is quite a small island.  The plan was to take our panga out for a bit along the shoreline to observe birds, then turn back and land on the beach.  However, as we traveled in the panga, our guide saw some whales futher out.  So, we kept going!  And going!  And then we reached a point where we realized we might as well go all the way around the island, instead of turn back and cover the same area.  It was fun, we were the only panga that took that route.  And we saw so many birds along the shoreline.  There was one area where numerous birds all dived into the water at once to fish, it looked like some sort of kamakazi attack!  I love the blue-footed boobies.

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Eventually we landed on the beach (everything did look red, gorgeous) and took a nice trail up to a viewpoint.  Rabida seemed so unique.  I know every island is unique, but I really liked the red color of the sand and rocks, combined with the large hills looming close by, the tall cacti, and the steep cliffs that drop straight down into the sea.  There is a little lagoon on the other side of the beach that was quite pretty, as well.  Some sea lions were traveling from the beach through the bushes, over to the lagoon.  I would have liked more time on this island!