Bartolomé & Santiago Island
We began our full day of exploration on Bartolomé Island with a pre-breakfast outing. We climbed 372 steps to the top of a cinder cone; as we reached the summit we observed the most famous view of the archipelago. We also learnt and saw the different volcanic formations along the way. After we returned from this walk we went snorkeling around Pinnacle Rock; there in the water some saw octopus, lobster and sharks.
As we left Bartolomé we headed towards Santiago Island where we went kayaking along the coast of Puerto Egas. This was a small town where salt was extracted from a crater; this was an important economic activity that ended in the late sixties with the closing of the mine, and then everybody abandoned the town. One can still see some ruins left of the salt mine era.
We explored the coastline and encountered several marine iguanas. One of the biggest surprises were the Galápagos fur seals in a rather large group of more than 30, which in turn is large for Galápagos standards. This species almost became extinct due to intensive hunting in the late eighteen hundreds.
We found an incredible amount of migratory birds along the coast and also a lonely looking great blue heron that was looking for food. We enjoyed this outstanding day and are now navigating to Santa Cruz Island.
