Bartolomé & Santiago
Today we woke up aboard the National Geographic Islander at the foot of Bartholomé Island. We disembarked early and went to visit the island before breakfast. We had a little bit of mist which is typical of the garua at this time of the year. Everybody was excited because I told them that the island looked like Mars. As we walked up, we saw plants like the lava cactus (Brachycereus nesioticus) which is an endemic species, and Chamaesyce spp. both of which are pioneer plants.
Bartholomé is one of the very small islands, but perhaps the prettiest place in the whole Galápagos that tempted filmmakers to make movies such as “Master and Commander.“ Once we got to the top of the island, we were able to see James, Bainbridge rocks, Sombrero Chino, Daphne Major and Minor, North Seymour, Baltra, and Santa Cruz.
We came back on board and had a well-deserved breakfast and then Lynn our Expedition Leader gave a snorkeling briefing to the group. Right after this we all got our snorkeling gear and went to the beach and started our snorkeling from there. Paul and Graciela, two of our Naturalists, stayed at the beach with the sunbathers and I went with the rest to explore all the beauty underwater.
We had an encounter with penguins, white-tipped reef sharks, lots of parrot fish, Panamic cushion sea stars, chocolate chip sea stars, lots of sea anemones, and yellow cup coral. From the water we saw a great blue heron catching a large banded blenny and then moving further up on the rocks, where he positioned the fish from head to tail and gulped it all the way in. That was quite a sight!
We headed back to the ship as the crew hauled the anchor up and we began our navigation towards Puerto Egas on James Island. Today Alexa the Hotel Manager, explained to our guests about the foods they were serving which were all traditional Ecuadorean dishes: roast pork served with potato tortillas, mote pillo (white hominy mixed with eggs and cheese), Oxalis salad (an Andean potato), and ceviche (a marinated seafood appetizer).
Once we arrived at Puerto Egas, guests had the options to go kayaking or snorkeling, and after that we all went for a walk along the coast. During this visit we saw marine iguanas, American oyster catchers, Galápagos sea lions, Galápagos fur seals and a wonderful sunset.
Back on the ship we had recap about the different types of sand on the different islands by Graciela. Then I also did a recap about the fish that we saw today.
