Bartolomé &Santiago Islands

We had a very exciting day today visiting Bartolomé &Santiago Islands. These two wonderful islands helped us have a better understanding of the natural processes that are taking place on the Galápagos archipelago. We started our day with an optional early wake up call to climb up the eroded crater of Bartolomé Island. We went all the way to the top with the help of a staircase and 372 steps! The extraordinary view from the top is one of the most famous ones in the Galápagos.

The rest of the morning was highlighted by marvelous sightings, whitetip reef sharks, sea turtle nests and a pod of bottled nosed dolphins. The dolphins were spotted just after lunch causing a lot of laughter and admiration; they were in a way, an unforgettable dessert.

Later in the afternoon, we anchored at Puerto Egas, visited in the recent centuries by early sailors. Ecuadorians and Norwegians tried to settle on this island at the beginning of the nineteen hundreds without success. The lack of fresh water and farming soil made it difficult for humans to survive here. Today, we can see scarce ruins of buildings people tried to establish in previous decades.

The afternoon stroll along the shoreline of Puerto Egas was full of nature highlights; the magnificent surrounding shield volcanoes of Isabela Island seen in the horizon, the big marine iguana colonies, Galápagos sea lions, oystercatchers, lava lizards, Darwin finches, Galápagos flycatchers and Smooth-billed Anis. We returned to the National Geographic Islander for cocktail hour to observe a glorious sunset from the ship.