Bartolome & Santiago Islands
Our day started with a little bid of clouds and wind, but on the other hand, we had the challenge to reach the top of Bartolome island. Most of our guests, being their first full day in the Galápagos, accepted the challenge and decided to join us in this adventure. It involved the climbing of more than three hundred and fifty steps. The reward was to see one of the most beautiful views in the Galápagos, the pinnacle rock formation. Bartolome itself is considered an open textbook for geology, which means that a lot of geological formations were found and described along the way.
For the afternoon, we dropped anchor at James Bay. We landed on a beautiful black beach and went to explore the shoreline of the island. As we were strolling along the coast, we suddenly got caught in the middle of two titans’ fight. There were two alpha male sea lions fighting for territory, which is not unusual to see, except that this time they did not stop until they got exhausted! The amount of strength used during this fight was something that I have never seen before, and the injuries produced to one another were no joke. I am about to get a little graphic here, but something that impressed me was the amount of blood that they were spilling over the black basaltic rocks, and even then, they still continue to fight. Well, this was definitely an experience that I was not expecting to have, but after all, this is nature and anything could happen. As we were strolling away from the sea lions’ battlefield, we could see how the two males were pretty far apart from each other totally exhausted.
After all the excitement, we returned to our good ship the Islander and enjoyed a delicious ceviche (marinade seafood) and some cocktails specially prepared for us.
Our day started with a little bid of clouds and wind, but on the other hand, we had the challenge to reach the top of Bartolome island. Most of our guests, being their first full day in the Galápagos, accepted the challenge and decided to join us in this adventure. It involved the climbing of more than three hundred and fifty steps. The reward was to see one of the most beautiful views in the Galápagos, the pinnacle rock formation. Bartolome itself is considered an open textbook for geology, which means that a lot of geological formations were found and described along the way.
For the afternoon, we dropped anchor at James Bay. We landed on a beautiful black beach and went to explore the shoreline of the island. As we were strolling along the coast, we suddenly got caught in the middle of two titans’ fight. There were two alpha male sea lions fighting for territory, which is not unusual to see, except that this time they did not stop until they got exhausted! The amount of strength used during this fight was something that I have never seen before, and the injuries produced to one another were no joke. I am about to get a little graphic here, but something that impressed me was the amount of blood that they were spilling over the black basaltic rocks, and even then, they still continue to fight. Well, this was definitely an experience that I was not expecting to have, but after all, this is nature and anything could happen. As we were strolling away from the sea lions’ battlefield, we could see how the two males were pretty far apart from each other totally exhausted.
After all the excitement, we returned to our good ship the Islander and enjoyed a delicious ceviche (marinade seafood) and some cocktails specially prepared for us.
