Bartolomé & Puerto Egas
All of a sudden the words of that old song “Raindrops are falling on my head” came to my mind. We were climbing the boardwalk on Bartolomé and everybody saw the ground was wet, but more than just that; plants showed a green color not present even last week on this mostly desolated island. As we checked on the landscape, we also felt tiny drops falling on our heads (no surprise why the tune came to me!). The land smelled different and even though it wasn’t sunny at all, the humidity made the hike kind of hot… but beautiful.
On the beach at midmorning we discovered lots of turtle tracks. We know as a fact that they are nesting massively everywhere around and that really shows us that the so-mentioned El Niño is present. During the snorkeling session we were surprised by the presence of a dozen penguins swimming next to us, just checking in a very casual way, they were like saying, “hum, look how awkward humans are when swimming,” but we enjoyed them.
Puerto Egas, on western Santiago Island appeared to us like a different planet. All the greenery extended onto the flanks of the Sugar Loaf (a nice cinder cone that dominates the landscape). Along the coast line we found a number of shore birds and sea birds as well. The rain hit us through the whole afternoon with warm pleasant water.
A different day by all means, today we were given a new chance to understand the complexities of these isolated environments.
