Red san beach of Rabida

Thursday, July 29th
Rabida was an incredibly unusual looking island. It was one of the few islands in the world with a red sanded beach. The color of the sand was brick red and it was slightly more course that the other beaches. Here we saw some new animal species - the galapagos hawk, American oyster catchers, pelicans, and of course the usual sea lions laying abound. After hiking around the islan for a few hours, we snorkeled around the pennisula. During the snorkel we saw all the same species of fish as the other snorkels in addition to 2 white tip reef sharks. After the swim, we sailed a few hours to Santiago Island. On the island we would arrive on a black sand beach called James Bay. It was beautiful! Then we hiked around the to the other side of island to Puerto Egas. The earth here was very black, rocky and volcanic. The twists and weaves of the island floor kinda reminded me of the rocks in Zion national park. I was fascinated by the patterns of the earth under my toes. Here lived lava lizards, loads of marine iguanas, sea turtles, galapagos fur seals (which is really a different type of sea lion), striped herons, and mockingbirds. This side of the island where all the animals roamed was like a completely different topographic world from the beach side. I loved this island. It quickly became on of my favorites. After our hike, we sailed in the evening for 5 hours to an island named Bartolome.