Bartolomé & Santiago
Today we woke up aboard the National Geographic Islander at foot of Bartholomé Island. We got up early and went to visit the island before breakfast. Everybody was excited because I told them that the island looks like moonscape. 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 a small islands but perhaps one of 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 on board and breakfast was waiting for us. Celso Monatalvo, our Expedition Leader, gave a snorkeling briefing to the group after breakfast. Right after this we all got our snorkeling gear and went to the beach. We walked to the other side of Bartolomé and saw a blue-footed booby feeding frenzy, pelicans plunging and penguins parasitizing at them. Paul and Antonio, two of our Naturalists, stayed at the beach with the sun bathers and I went to do the Pacific green sea turtle tracks counting and found none. 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 sea food appetizer).
Once we arrived to Puerto Egas, we disembarked and took a walk along the coats. During this visit we saw marine iguanas, American oyster catchers, Galápagos sea lions, Galápagos fur seals, and a wonderful sunset.
Back on the ship Antonio gave a recap about the natural history of birds.
