Bartolome and Santiago Islands
It is 5:30 in the morning and still dark in the Galápagos Islands but day light will break through in 25 more minutes. The Islander is anchored at Bortolome island, and we can see from the upper decks the beautiful silhouettes of its parasitic cones. This morning at 6:30, our guests will be taken to their first serious hiking in a national park area. Climbing up towards the summit of this island will take us about an hour to reach a view point of around three hundred feet up where we enjoyed one of the most beautiful and popular sights of the Galápagos. On the way up, the Galapagos National Park Service placed a wooden stairway to avoid the erosion of the area.
Once we climbed down the stairway back to the ship, a delicious and well deserved buffet breakfast was served. After breakfast, guests attended a crucial briefing about safety for snorkeling from our expedition leader Lucho Verdesoto, got their snorkeling gear from the naturalists staff, and with their bathing suits on, they were taken into the second morning outing to the beach of Bartolome. This was their first encounter with the Galápagos underwater life. This particular site is considered to be one of the nicest and easiest snorkeling sites in the islands. Everybody snorkeled and enjoyed a great time with fish, octopuses, sea stars, Galápagos penguins and more.
The second outing also included a short walk to another nearby beach were we saw white tipped reef sharks swimming right on the shore, got to know about the sea turtles nesting habits around the area and observe their natural nests in the white sandy dunes.
After a full morning, we all came back on board to recover strength for the afternoon with a great lunch. The Islander moved to the west and anchored at James Bay (Puerto Egas) on Santiago Island. After a short nap, everybody had the opportunity to go snorkeling again in Puerto Egas. An imposing black sandy beach was this time the hostess for our landing and the starting point for the second snorkeling of the day. After we snorkeled for about an hour, naturalists took everybody on one of the nicest and relaxing walks of the week. We strolled along the sea side of Puerto Egas where we shared the afternoon with all kinds of incredible wild creatures. California and Furred sea lions, marine iguanas, sally light foot crabs, shore birds, land and marine birds and lots of others were the afternoon highlights to finish the afternoon walk at an impressive system of naturally formed lava pools called the grottos.
Once back on board, you could feel how excited everybody was about the wonderful things we had done, learned and seen during this great first full day we had in the Galápagos.
It is 5:30 in the morning and still dark in the Galápagos Islands but day light will break through in 25 more minutes. The Islander is anchored at Bortolome island, and we can see from the upper decks the beautiful silhouettes of its parasitic cones. This morning at 6:30, our guests will be taken to their first serious hiking in a national park area. Climbing up towards the summit of this island will take us about an hour to reach a view point of around three hundred feet up where we enjoyed one of the most beautiful and popular sights of the Galápagos. On the way up, the Galapagos National Park Service placed a wooden stairway to avoid the erosion of the area.
Once we climbed down the stairway back to the ship, a delicious and well deserved buffet breakfast was served. After breakfast, guests attended a crucial briefing about safety for snorkeling from our expedition leader Lucho Verdesoto, got their snorkeling gear from the naturalists staff, and with their bathing suits on, they were taken into the second morning outing to the beach of Bartolome. This was their first encounter with the Galápagos underwater life. This particular site is considered to be one of the nicest and easiest snorkeling sites in the islands. Everybody snorkeled and enjoyed a great time with fish, octopuses, sea stars, Galápagos penguins and more.
The second outing also included a short walk to another nearby beach were we saw white tipped reef sharks swimming right on the shore, got to know about the sea turtles nesting habits around the area and observe their natural nests in the white sandy dunes.
After a full morning, we all came back on board to recover strength for the afternoon with a great lunch. The Islander moved to the west and anchored at James Bay (Puerto Egas) on Santiago Island. After a short nap, everybody had the opportunity to go snorkeling again in Puerto Egas. An imposing black sandy beach was this time the hostess for our landing and the starting point for the second snorkeling of the day. After we snorkeled for about an hour, naturalists took everybody on one of the nicest and relaxing walks of the week. We strolled along the sea side of Puerto Egas where we shared the afternoon with all kinds of incredible wild creatures. California and Furred sea lions, marine iguanas, sally light foot crabs, shore birds, land and marine birds and lots of others were the afternoon highlights to finish the afternoon walk at an impressive system of naturally formed lava pools called the grottos.
Once back on board, you could feel how excited everybody was about the wonderful things we had done, learned and seen during this great first full day we had in the Galápagos.
