Bartolomé & Santiago Islands
Today we started our day surrounded by geological features. Early in the morning, before breakfast, we climbed to the summit of Bartolomé Island. From there we could observe lava tubes, pahohoe lava and parasitic cones such as spatter cones and tuff cones. Tuff is compacted ash that forms cones and erodes faster than lava rock. From the top of Bartolome we enjoyed of one of the most beautiful landscapes of the Galápagos which includes the very famous Pinnacle Rock, a tuff cone that has gotten very eroded.
After breakfast we disembarked on the golden beach of Bartolome. Here we were ready for our first snorkeling outing which couldn’t be better! We saw all different types of fish, sea lions came very close to us, and colorful sea stars were decorating the ocean floor. But the highlight was to swim with Galápagos penguins as they were fishing.
In the afternoon we moved to the western side of Santiago Island. We started with an incredible kayaking along the shore, followed by beach activities on black sand. We all got together at the beach to start our walk looking for the second species of sea lion in the Galápagos: the fur seal. We found many, plus we added a lot of marine iguanas, shore and land birds, and of course the very charismatic Galápagos sea lions.
Coming back at sunset, the sky was painted with beautiful colors that we enjoyed from the sun deck as we cheered with a cocktail, celebrating our first day in the islands.
