Bartolome & Santiago Islands
On our last full day in the Enchanted Islands, the National Geographic Endeavour brought us to these two central islands of the archipelago. Here, one can feel in real isolation from the outside world, when observing the beautiful landscapes of young volcanoes and lava flows that surrounded us and in the distance.
In the early morning, just before breakfast, we visited Bartolome, a small island containing over 200 cones and craters of various sizes. After climbing over 370 wooden steps, our efforts were rewarded with stunning views of lava fields of various colors both on this tiny island and adjacent Sullivan Bay. It was a sunny morning, with clear skies, so after breakfast on board we quickly disembarked again to enjoy the sun, sand and sea.
A beautiful golden beach lies besides famous Pinnacle Rock, and many of our ‘fearless snorklers’ explored that area from the water. Others just preferred to have a more laid back time and enjoyed the wildlife while sitting on the sand. A couple of young sea lions wrestled with each other for a while, and a solitary Galápagos penguin showed up in the shallow waters of the beach, while hunting for some fish, to everyones surprise (and delight!). We were also entertained by blue-footed boobies fishing in their kamikaze style! But our morning came to an end, and it was time to move on to our next destination: Santiago Island.
After a couple of hours navigation, the National Geographic Endeavour dropped anchor at James Bay, situated on the western coast of Santiago. This island was once a favorite for buccaneers and privateers, who knew these waters very well, and benefited from its abundance of safe anchorages, firewood and sadly, giant tortoise meat. It was also one of the four Galápagos islands visited by Charles Darwin, who landed here during September 1835. This happened not far from our landing spot, named Puerto Egas.
This afternoon, we landed here to explore this area ourselves. Some of our young explorers, attracted by the beautiful black sand, warm temperaturas and the wildlife found here, decided to stay on the beach to swim and snorkel, accompanied by parents or grandparents, as well as some of our naturalists.
Others decided to take a walk along the trail of Puerto Egas, to catch a last glimpse of the wonderful creatures that live in this paradisiac world: the unique, bizarre-looking marine iguanas, Galápagos fur sea lions, sally light-foot crabs, and striated herons, amongst others.
As the sun set, we slowly made our way back on board. It is our last afternoon in the Enchanted Islands, and upon leaving this fantastic island we’ll start to realize that perhaps Galápagos might never leave our hearts and memories.
