Bartolomé & Santiago Islands
I personally like the early walks before breakfast. The light of the sunrise is soft and somehow the landscape has different colors compared with the strong sunlight by midday. The fresh air that surrounds the island is really pure, lots to enjoy during this marvelous morning.
We all started the hike on a quiet and easy dry landing area where a Galápagos sea lion welcomed us as well as a Galápagos penguin that was standing on a rock, and our guests took several photos. We saw lava lizards unique to this area feeding on the flowers of tiquilia plant. We climbed the 170 and more wooden steps up to the summit of the main cone of Bartolomé, from where we saw the most interesting and beautiful landscape.
From the summit, around 400 feet over sea level, we could identify several islands around the impressive volcanic landscape of spatter cones of Bartolomé including: Rabida, Chinese Hat, Bainbridge Rocks, Santa Cruz Island, Baltra and North Seymour, the place we visited yesterday.
After breakfast we disembarked on one of my favorite beaches where we first did a walk through the dunes where we observed at few white tipped reef sharks which kept swimming close to shore. After spotting them, we came back to the northern beach to start our snorkeling and swimming activities, in place where some of our guests learned – for the first time – how to snorkel. Many practiced for awhile instead of going back to the ship.
Later, with our zodiacs, we moved onto the open sea and encountered bottlenose dolphins jumping and playing around us. It was so exiting that some of our guests almost jumped away to swim with them.
We finally boarded the National Geographic Islander with unforgettable memories in our hearts to have lunch together and navigate to the island of Santiago.
On Santiago, our guests enjoyed snorkeling in very clear water, where they saw several green pacific sea turtles and colorful fish. After about an hour, we started a walk on the intertidal zone of Santiago at low tide. In this place, we found several unique marine iguanas basking in the very last sunrays of this interesting afternoon. We also saw Galápagos fur seals waking themselves up to start their nocturnal hunting habits.
We came back to our home aboard the National Geographic Islander with a beautiful sunset.
I personally like the early walks before breakfast. The light of the sunrise is soft and somehow the landscape has different colors compared with the strong sunlight by midday. The fresh air that surrounds the island is really pure, lots to enjoy during this marvelous morning.
We all started the hike on a quiet and easy dry landing area where a Galápagos sea lion welcomed us as well as a Galápagos penguin that was standing on a rock, and our guests took several photos. We saw lava lizards unique to this area feeding on the flowers of tiquilia plant. We climbed the 170 and more wooden steps up to the summit of the main cone of Bartolomé, from where we saw the most interesting and beautiful landscape.
From the summit, around 400 feet over sea level, we could identify several islands around the impressive volcanic landscape of spatter cones of Bartolomé including: Rabida, Chinese Hat, Bainbridge Rocks, Santa Cruz Island, Baltra and North Seymour, the place we visited yesterday.
After breakfast we disembarked on one of my favorite beaches where we first did a walk through the dunes where we observed at few white tipped reef sharks which kept swimming close to shore. After spotting them, we came back to the northern beach to start our snorkeling and swimming activities, in place where some of our guests learned – for the first time – how to snorkel. Many practiced for awhile instead of going back to the ship.
Later, with our zodiacs, we moved onto the open sea and encountered bottlenose dolphins jumping and playing around us. It was so exiting that some of our guests almost jumped away to swim with them.
We finally boarded the National Geographic Islander with unforgettable memories in our hearts to have lunch together and navigate to the island of Santiago.
On Santiago, our guests enjoyed snorkeling in very clear water, where they saw several green pacific sea turtles and colorful fish. After about an hour, we started a walk on the intertidal zone of Santiago at low tide. In this place, we found several unique marine iguanas basking in the very last sunrays of this interesting afternoon. We also saw Galápagos fur seals waking themselves up to start their nocturnal hunting habits.
We came back to our home aboard the National Geographic Islander with a beautiful sunset.
