Bartolomé and Santiago
This morning when I gave the morning up-date to wake folks up, dawn was already well on its way in the East. Overhead there was blue sky, so I knew it would be another warm day; perfect for snorkeling!
The intrepid "non-stop to the top" group took off at six-thirty, followed immediately by folk who wanted to climb the boardwalk and stairs to the highest point of Bartolomé in a more "rational" manner. Spectacular views: Santiago behind Pinnacle Rock, Rabida, Duncan, Santa Cruz, the Daphne Islands, and Baltra, our final destination but not to be thought about until mid-day, on my orders!
Snorkeling from the beach was easy, and the glass bottom boats took her passengers on a ride for the last time; parrotfish, surgeonfish and rays below, boobies and frigates above.
I thought all was calm when we were all in the dining room for lunch, when squeals of joy erupted from a corner table announcing the presence of dolphins leaping high. Some of us abandoned our meal mid-forkful and raced to the bow. Sure enough, the Pacific bottle-nosed dolphins were coming our way. A very large pod was cruising the area, and they stayed with us a long time, throughout an entire circle made by the ship in order that everyone had time to leave the dining room and visit the bow where the sight of twenty or more dolphins riding the bow waves had all of us squealing with joy and clapping our hands in excitement.
In the afternoon, we made our landing at Puerto Egas, inside James Bay on the western side of Santiago Island with two objectives in mind: snorkel there last, off the black sand beach where they saw turtles (green and hawksbill), octopus, and hoards of fish; or walk the outer coastline of James Bay to see for perhaps the last time, a little bit of everything Galápagos has produced. Sea lions, fur seals, marine iguanas, boobies, frigates in the air, shorebirds in the intertidal zone, flycatchers practically in your hair, mockingbirds and finches chirruping in the bushes and trees, the massive volcanoes of Isabela in the distance, blue water, bright light, white sand, black lava.
The essence of Galapagos.
