Bartolomé & Santiago Islands
Our early wakeup call took us by surprise. But soon we were ready to walk all the way to the summit of Bartolomé, the most famous island in the Galápagos. This optional outing on a wooden staircase gave us the privilege to see nine islands and a wonderful landscape.
After breakfast we disembarked on a golden beach next to our very famous Pinnacle Rock. We walked first on the dunes of sand to discover some turtle nests. The water temperature was 79F and everybody enjoyed swimming and snorkelling. We saw many different species of fish and we swam with Galápagos penguins, marble sting rays and playful sea lions.
Then we enjoyed the incredible and nutritious Ecuadorian lunch as we recovered our energies from the morning. In the afternoon we landed on Puerto Egas in Santiago Island; it was an unbelievable shaky wavy wet landing as the swells of the Pacific came in. Our visit took us to the grottos where we saw the Galápagos fur sea lions. We found one of these eared seals sleeping inside a lava fissure away from the sunlight. We also found lots of marine iguanas all over the shore, and shore birds like the oystercatcher.
Coming back home onboard the National Geographic Islander, we fancied the swell, at the same time that we enjoyed a beautiful sunset to celebrate our first full day in paradise!
