Bartolomé Island

This morning on the second day of our expedition we visited Bartolomé Island. This place is home to a beautiful formation, Pinnacle Rock, which is one of the most striking examples of a tuff cone, a vertical rock formation of hardened ash. The small island of Bartolomé is located off the eastern shore of Santiago Island. We climbed to the summit of this island, 359 feet, to see an incredible volcanic moonscape of rust-colored “spatter cones” contrasting with large pale tuff cones and sooty lava flows. The view is not only educational but inspiring. After this visit we returned to National Geographic Islander for breakfast.

Ready for our next activity, we landing at a golden beach to swim and snorkel beneath the Galápagos waves. The underwater world of the Galápagos is fascinating and still harbors a lot surprises for it has been hardly explored – especially at great depths. We observed an array of creatures like a Spiny lobster hiding in a lava tube and an interesting mix of tropical fish, yellow-tailed Surgeonfish, white-banded Angelfish, and blue-eyed Damselfish. In Galápagos huge corals reefs are not present, but we do have a fair amount of coral heads here and there.

We returned to the ship after our water activities, and during lunch we sailed some 26nm, passing by the scenic Buccaneer Cove, a onetime 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 more adventurous guests had the opportunity to explore the coast of Santiago while kayaking.

Then at 4:00 pm, we all started on a walk to discover the wonders of Santiago. Some groups took the seaside trail along the coastline, habitat of many coastal birds, whimbrels, sanderlings, ruddy turnstones, and American Oystercatchers nesting. We observed dozens of marine iguanas basking in the sun as well. Some Galápagos sea lions resting and nursing their pups or just playing around were observed as well. In the distance we observed a couple of Orcas breaching. Other guests 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. At one point in the loop all the groups gathered to share their sightings and impressions. Both trails ended up into the carved sea-level grottos where we could see the elusive Galápagos fur seals that were resting inside the lava tubes and showing their very distinctive features that correspond to these species.

A gorgeous sunset came fast under the reddish orange skies before the sun disappeared into the dark landscape.