Bartolomé and Sombrero Chino
As we climb the steps up the volcano of Bartolomé we can see the first sun rays that promise us a beautiful sunny day in the central islands of the archipelago.
Bartolomé Island is the geological icon of Galápagos, not only because of its famous Pinnacle Rock but because of the lunar landscape formed by a series of spatter cones that rise on the eastern part of the island.
This visit to Bartolomé was an optional pre-breakfast outing, so not many of us went on the adventure, but those who did go had a wonderful quiet time enjoying the magnificent earth colors of this volcano; the different hues of reds, browns and grays give the island a unique look, entirely different from the rest of the islands that still have some green from the past rainy season.
After breakfast we went to the beach to snorkel along the flanks of Pinnacle Rock; the array of parrot fish, sea stars, yellow-tail surgeon and cardinal fish gave this place so much color it was hard to concentrate on one thing. The best gift, however, was the Galápagos penguins that were like little torpedoes under the water, flying after small salemas.
Our young explorers also had a great time at the beach, swimming and building sand castles with the unique golden sand from Bartolomé.
In the afternoon the National Geographic Endeavour sailed to a small island known as Sombrero Chino, or Chinese Hat. This island is particularly small so we did not go on a walk here. However, our naturalists sure kept us busy, with a quiet zodiac ride where we got to see the small Galápagos penguins, and the amazing geology of Santiago Island that lies right across the channel from Sombrero Chino. Here one can see a “recent,” geologically speaking, lava flow that engulfed a red cinder cone, adding color to the black lava flow.
The snorkeling was magnificent in this shallow canal; in a small area we saw a ray, parrot fish, schools of rainbow wrasses, small cardinal fish, and all these ocean creatures were hanging out close to the old lava flows that froze once they reached the water, taking us back in time to imagine how these islands were formed millions of years ago.
