Bartolomé and Sombrero Chino Islands
Today we started out with a nice pre-breakfast work-out. We landed at the cement pier of the dry island of Bartolomé to climb up a wooden stairway built by the Park Service to reach a summit where the lighthouse is placed.
We enjoyed the natural lava formations as we climbed up and saw several of the surrounding islands; this is one of the best viewpoints in the archipelago and we could even see Marchena Island, which is at the very northern tip of the archipelago.
After we came back and re-gained strength with a great breakfast, we landed at a beach and swam with the tiny Galápagos penguins; some of us saw 13 of them!
The afternoon highlights were the white-tipped reef sharks we found in an underwater cave, the spotted eagle ray, the leopard garden snake eel and the bunch of adult and juvenile penguins that swam with us and posed for pictures on the rocks later in the evening.
We had another outing for beach-goers and they had a nice relaxing time at a tiny white sandy beach by Sombrero Chino Island. Some sea lions were resting around us.
Back on board, the naturalists and expedition leader gave a presentation to help us better understand the life cycle of plankton, then the video chronicler gave a preview of the work he is preparing for the week, and finally, after the great barbecue dinner served outside on the pool deck, we had an amusing and informative tale about Darwin’s life.
Lindblad is really the best of the best in nature training and entertainment for adults as well as for young explorers.
