Bartolomé & Rabida Island
Today we got up before breakfast to take advantage of the cool early morning weather. We walked up the steps to the summit of Bartolomé Island, pausing now and then to take in the breathtaking views while catching our breath; quite complicated! This small island must have been formed by a very violent series of eruptions, leaving many spatter cones as the geological smoking guns. Some pioneering plants were seen, but next to those, some lava lizards and a few finches, the island is almost devoid of live.
A bit later, after breakfast, we went snorkeling along the dramatic eroded tuff cliffs, and the island really came alive. Colorful reef fish, sharks and penguins were seen while we floated in calm, crystal clear and warm water. Pelicans and blue-footed boobies were flying back and forth.
In the afternoon we disembarked, after an intermezzo with bottlenose dolphins, to go kayaking or snorkeling along the red cliffs of Rabida Island. We again had warm and calm water, saw marine iguanas, sea lions and blue-footed boobies, to name just a few species.
Later some of us went for a hike on the island and saw Galápagos flamingoes, several species of finches and many kinds of flowering plants. Recently, Rabida has been eradicated of rats, and the project seems to have been rewarded with a very wet season, making the island looking greener than ever, with an abundance of land birds and the return of flamingoes, which haven’t been seen here since the 90’s!
What a good note to end this fully packed day, and what a promising start for this week which has just begun.
