Bartolomé & Santiago Islands
At 6:30 am we were all ready for the earliest outing of the week! All guests were excited as we told them that they would be hiking more than 360 steps to see one of the most fantastic volcanic landscapes we can offer. And yes, indeed, the tiny Island of Bartolomé offers a breathtaking view from its summit: cinder cones, lava tubes, lava fields and some of the islands nearby such as Santiago, Rabida, Sombrero Chino, Pinzon, Santa Cruz, Daphne Major and Minor, Baltra and North Seymour!
Right at the landing site we had to wait until a gracious female sea lion moved away to let us go by. We climbed a few rocks, and immediately we went into our hike seeing on the way some interesting plants such as the Tiquilias, Chamaesyces, Scalesias and lava cactuses. Once in a while little lava lizards showed up and climbed with us a few steps. We spotted a Galápagos hawk and for sure he was looking for a distracted lava lizard…
Once at the summit, hundreds of photos were taken before going back on board for a deserved breakfast.
At 10:00 we went for a wet landing at the beach of Bartolomé, where we had the opportunity to swim and snorkel. Some of us went around the Pinnacle rock and had the chance to play with a very curious female sea lion and a few Galápagos penguins. I had the opportunity to film them with our underwater camera and at night during our recap, we shared with the guests the incredible images of the rich marine life of the islands.
Time to go for lunch, this time a delicious Ecuadorian buffet which everyone enjoyed very much and at 2:30 we set off for our first kayak outing at Puerto Egas, Santiago Island, our afternoon visitor’s site. While some kayakers were out, we went to the beach, this time a black one, to enjoy our second snorkel experience and some relaxing time.
Then it was time for the walk, which was fantastic in many ways. We saw sea lions, marine iguanas, American oystercatchers, lava lizards, beautiful tuff formations and the best of the afternoon, sea lions and white tip sharks swimming together at some natural pools where the water was crystalline.
But this was not all, we also had the chance to encounter the shy fur seals. Some of them were out of the water and we could see how different they are from the sea lions. Others were swimming at the pools with 3 sea turtles at the time… what else for a single afternoon?
It was so nice that it was almost dark when we left the island, but never mind, everyone had a big smile on their face!
