Bartolomé and Santiago Islands

Very early in the morning, before breakfast, we landed at Bartolomé, a beautiful volcanic islet off the east coast of Santiago Island. We climbed to the summit of this island (359 feet/109 meters high) to see an incredible volcanic moonscape of rust-colored "spatter cones" contrasting with large pale tuff cones and sooty lava flows. Graceful features created by erosion in the soft volcanic ash are home to little plants, species that can withstand the drought conditions that occur here, such as the endemics lava cactus.

After this breathtaking view, we returned to our lovely ship for a well-deserved breakfast. Soon after, our guests were carefully instructed about the next activities of the day: swimming and snorkeling.

We landed at the beautiful, golden beach of Bartolomé, where both beginners and experienced snorkelers had the chance to see some colorful reef fish, corals, eels, white tip reef sharks and the very interesting underwater lava formations, while others enjoyed the beach and the refreshing ocean.

We returned to the ship after the water activities, and during lunch, we sailed some 26 nautical miles, passing by the scenic Buccaneer Cove, a one-time pirate haunt, to anchor at Puerto Egas, on the western end of Santiago Island. As soon as we arrived, our kayaks were deployed and some of our adventurous guests had the chance to explore the coast of Santiago while admiring the beautiful volcanic landscape and the wildlife of the area. Others explored the underwater world while snorkeling from the beach.

Then at 4:00 pm, we all started walking to discover the wonders of Santiago. Some groups took the seaside trail along the coastline, habitat of many coastal birds, dozens of marine iguanas basking in the sun, sea lions resting, nursing their babies or just playing around. Others took the inland trail, passing through the arid zone of the island, covered with many endemic and native plants, food source for insects, lava lizards and land birds, such as the Darwin finches and the Galápagos mockingbirds.

Both trails ended up into the carved sea-level grottos where we could see the elusive fur seals resting inside the lava tubes and showing their very distinctive features that correspond to these species.

Sunset came fast and after following in the footsteps of Darwin, we left Santiago under the reddish orange skies.