Bartolomé & Santiago islands
Bartolomé is a small island located off the eastern coast of Santiago and it is considered the Mecca for all the visitors who come to the Galápagos, since it has one of the most amazing geological views. This small island is very well-known for various geological formations, like the famous Pinnacle Rock, the lunar landscape that can be viewed from the summit of the volcano, and the beautiful golden beach that invites everyone to do some snorkeling around the Pinnacle Rock.
Early this morning we climbed more than 370 wooden steps in order to reach the summit of Bartolome, and as we climb our way up we saw some lava tubes that looked like roots coming out of the volcano. The spatter cones give the island the impression of being on the moon and, last but not least, the astounding Pinnacle Rock stands tall close to the golden beach.
After breakfast we had a second outing for a walk along a sand dune that took us to the other side of the isthmus. Here we could see white tip sharks, green back sea turtles and pelicans feeding. Those of us who didn’t go for the walk had the first opportunity for snorkeling from the beach. Here we saw lots of parrot fish, puffer fish, white tip sharks, two sting rays, mullets, cardinal fish and many other fish that live in these waters.
At noon the National Geographic Islander sailed to the northwestern part of Santiago for our afternoon visit at Puerto Egas, named after Mr. Hector Egas who exported the salt that was collected from a salt mine nearby in the early 1970’s.
As we walked along the inner part of the trail we were lucky to see Galápagos hawks, some of the small beak finches, Galápagos mockingbirds and Galápagos doves looking for seeds in the ground. As of now it is the dry season and these land birds are not very lucky to find too much food.
At the end of our trail we found the most remarkable grottos, home of the endemic Galápagos fur seals. From here on, we walked along the coastline admiring the migratory birds like sanderlings, sandpipers, turnstones and many others, but the highlight of the walk were the young sea lions that remain in the tidal pools playing with their mates while they wait for their mothers to come back from fishing. Another great feature along this walk was the colorful sally light foot crabs that decorate the black coast line.
So this was our first full day in paradise and it promises that every day is going to be a great adventure full of surprises and magical moments.
