Santiago & Santa Cruz

14 Jul 2026

The upside of not sleeping well is that I’m up every day for sunrise:

Even though we’ve got internet on the boat and I could check, I don’t know what time the sun actually rises here- I just know it’s 6am-ish, so I kept checking to see if it would get better.

It did:

A light day today- one last dive off the coast of Santiago here:

and then a tour of the highlands of Santa Cruz (which I’ve done before but will absolutely do again!):

Before the dive deck got too crazy, Me, Lisa and Eric took a picture with our backplates- they’ve got Freedom plates too!!!

It’s been a while since I’ve spotted another one in the wild so it was fun to get to see 2 on this trip!

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Dive #19 – Cousins Rock

I did this dive on my last trip and the shot I got of a little shark sleeping under a ledge has been my Facebook background for the past decade 🙂

Today’s dive included many different types of sea stars:

(I tried to take a picture of each different one I saw)

Lots of fish, like this Pacific creolefish, were taking naps on the sea floor:

and these Flag cabrillas:

This one found a comfy rock to rest on:

Panamic fang blenny with some very distinct markings in a nice shell house:

Another Sabertooth blenny out of his home:

Solitary eagle ray cruising through:

and then a whole school overhead!

Spotted sharpnose puffer:

Barberfish:

I didn’t realize it at the time, but those are some very young juvenile Mexican hogfish- the size I was hoping to find for the age progression series I took a couple days ago.

Old Mexican hogfish with a very nice bumphead and no yellow bar:

Razor surgeonfish:

Shark pack!!!

There were so many sharks napping in this area!

But the water was murky and I don’t have a wide angle lens

So honestly, I think the shot I got on my first trip is much better.  But it was still awesome to see so many sharks just chilling in one place.

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Then we began the arduous task of trying to get all our gear to dry:

Our boat stopped back in the harbor to refuel:

and we gained a dock friend:

Then about half of the group settled in to watch the soccer match (France vs Spain):

while the rest of us hopped on the pangas, left the boat:

and headed ashore:

up into the clouds:

to what I thought was going to be the same tortoise ranch I visited last time- I even spotted the sign, but then we turned the other way.

Same idea- free range tortoises:

munching away:

undisturbed by our presence:

Me and a tortoise!

(they gave us rubber boots to wear so our shoes wouldn’t get all muddy)

Just a bit rainier than the last time I was here

Seems like maybe not the best day to take a mud bath:

Galapagos pintail duck:

Small Darwin finch (male):

female:

Mangrove yellow warbler:

He did not want to stay still for pictures!

But I persisted til I got this shot!

Lots of trails to explore here:

and lots of tortoises right off the path:

There are 6 tortoises in this picture:

I wasn’t sure what the pink stuff under that tree was til I got closer: