Bartolomé & Santiago Islands
Last night we arrived to Bartolomé Island. This was our morning’s place to explore. We headed ashore before breakfast and on to a cemented dock; right there we found a few marine iguanas resting still like small statues greeting us.
As we landed, we started to climb to the top of an extinct volcano. The place is devoid of large trees, but has some of the early pioneer plants such as: lava cactus, Galápagos gray mat plant, and Galápagos spurges. Even though there is very little water, these plants are well adapted to survive for long periods of time with that little precious water.
At the very top of Bartolomé one can find a gorgeous landscape, which is the most famous view of the entire archipelago. We took portraits of ourselves and our loved ones with the pinnacle rock in the background, but the most important image is the one in our memory.
For the rest of the morning we went snorkeling, walking, or riding on the glass bottom boat. We stayed swimming with penguins, sea lions, sharks and lots of fish. This was one of our favorite spots.
For the afternoon we went ashore to the island of Santiago. There, young Charles Darwin once walked on lava flows and made amazing observations on the fauna and flora of the archipelago that served him so well in developing his evolutionary views. We walked along his same steps on Puerto Egas and saw pretty much the same things he did during his time in Galápagos. Many things may have changed after Darwin’s visit, but much of the lovely spirit of the conservation and curiosity for the islands still remains the same.
