Sombrero Chino
This is an incredible place with beautifully colored water and an amazing landscape. We started before breakfast with a fantastic Zodiac ride around the island. From beginning to end we saw wildlife including the Galápagos penguin, a species to be found only in this islands and the only to entirely breed along the equator. We saw the always-beautiful great blue heron, which displayed its hunting skills for the cameras. There were also sea lions barking in the distance as if announcing their presence, diving boobies and so much more – happy with our exploration, we return to the ship for breakfast.
After breakfast we prepared to dive into the water to enjoy the incredible underwater world of the Galápagos. Right now the water is very warm, so we were able to explore the undersea for a long time. We saw colorful fish, rays, sharks, starfish, sea urchins, the playful sea lions, and the most unexpected of all, tropical water penguins to the surprise of everyone. Yes – we saw penguins and reef sharks together.
We return to the ship and the Captain took us towards Bainbridge Islands, the biggest of the group of island. We kept a lookout for pink flamingos whose population remains very small in the Galapagos Islands. We saw quite a few on the island’s lagoon border, all from the top of the ship. The ship sailed on for next destination only to be joined by an enormous pod of bottlenose dolphins. As soon as they noticed the ship they came over bow riding – they seem to enjoy it as much as we enjoy watching them. It was a wonderful time!!
In the afternoon we dropped anchor at Sullivan Bay and went for a walk on a century-old lava flow. The pahoe-hoe lava flow was quite an interesting formation. There was little life on the island, just some lava lizards and plants that are able to colonize this barren location. We saw mollugo plants, lava cactus that rise from the middle of nothing, and through them we learn that life is possible in the least expected of places.
Another amazing adventure in Galápagos.
