Bartolome and Santiago Islands
Today our activities started very early at 6:30 am. We did a walk to the top of Bartolome. It was overcast at the beginning, but the sun came up on our way up. At the summit, we experienced a wonderful landscape with a Galápagos hawk in full flight with the pinnacle rock in the background. The geology of this island is so amazing. The red coloration of the rocks and the spatter cones give us a sensation like we were walking on a different planet. We started heading back, however we had to stop because two lava lizards were blocking our way, so lots of pictures were taken. We then came back on board for our well deserved breakfast. The hike was only to warm up, as we had the rest of the morning for the water activities at the golden beach close to pinnacle rock. Most of us decided to do a short walk across the sand dunes to a beach where normally green sea turtles nest. This time a group of five white tipped reef sharks and a couple of brown pelicans nesting on the mangroves welcomed us. Shortly after, we all enjoyed the water as we snorkeled and discovered the abundance of colorful tropical fish as well as typical silvery fish from cold waters.
We sailed to the western side of Santiago, the island where Charles Darwin spent nine days. Some of us went snorkeling off a beautiful black beach where we saw a baby black tipped reef shark, sea turtles and tropical fish. Some others took a long hike along the shore line where we encountered dozens of marine iguanas sun bathing as well as shore birds such as oyster catchers, whimbrels, and ruddy turnstones. The sea lions were also the highlight since we saw a lot of juvenile Galápagos sea lions playing in tide pools and some fur sea lions napping on the rocks. The day was gorgeous!
Today our activities started very early at 6:30 am. We did a walk to the top of Bartolome. It was overcast at the beginning, but the sun came up on our way up. At the summit, we experienced a wonderful landscape with a Galápagos hawk in full flight with the pinnacle rock in the background. The geology of this island is so amazing. The red coloration of the rocks and the spatter cones give us a sensation like we were walking on a different planet. We started heading back, however we had to stop because two lava lizards were blocking our way, so lots of pictures were taken. We then came back on board for our well deserved breakfast. The hike was only to warm up, as we had the rest of the morning for the water activities at the golden beach close to pinnacle rock. Most of us decided to do a short walk across the sand dunes to a beach where normally green sea turtles nest. This time a group of five white tipped reef sharks and a couple of brown pelicans nesting on the mangroves welcomed us. Shortly after, we all enjoyed the water as we snorkeled and discovered the abundance of colorful tropical fish as well as typical silvery fish from cold waters.
We sailed to the western side of Santiago, the island where Charles Darwin spent nine days. Some of us went snorkeling off a beautiful black beach where we saw a baby black tipped reef shark, sea turtles and tropical fish. Some others took a long hike along the shore line where we encountered dozens of marine iguanas sun bathing as well as shore birds such as oyster catchers, whimbrels, and ruddy turnstones. The sea lions were also the highlight since we saw a lot of juvenile Galápagos sea lions playing in tide pools and some fur sea lions napping on the rocks. The day was gorgeous!
