Bartolome and Santiago Islands
It was a beautiful morning with clear skies and a cloudy horizon. Bartolome Island has a stark landscape, yet an attraction about it that is hard to qualify. It is a perfect place for describing and understanding volcanic formations since they are right there, exposed for all of us to contemplate. Fantastic formations such as tuff cones, cinder cones and spatter cones can be seen. Our guests came back aboard with a special sensation, as if they had been in another planet, after having seen the odd volcanic landscape of this island.
The rest of the morning we focused on water activities; swimming and snorkeling from a golden beach where some of our guests had a great time interacting with Galapagos penguins. It was delightful to see how fast they cruise under the water. A penguin on land is clumsy, but under the water they are like torpedoes. The long spindle-shaped body has legs which are inserted far back, so they are very effective as oars and steering appendages. The small tail, also used as a steering rudder, is streamlined and triangular. The wings have been transformed into flippers and you don’t see a single feather. But they do contain all the bones of a wing suitable for flying.
It was a beautiful morning with clear skies and a cloudy horizon. Bartolome Island has a stark landscape, yet an attraction about it that is hard to qualify. It is a perfect place for describing and understanding volcanic formations since they are right there, exposed for all of us to contemplate. Fantastic formations such as tuff cones, cinder cones and spatter cones can be seen. Our guests came back aboard with a special sensation, as if they had been in another planet, after having seen the odd volcanic landscape of this island.
The rest of the morning we focused on water activities; swimming and snorkeling from a golden beach where some of our guests had a great time interacting with Galapagos penguins. It was delightful to see how fast they cruise under the water. A penguin on land is clumsy, but under the water they are like torpedoes. The long spindle-shaped body has legs which are inserted far back, so they are very effective as oars and steering appendages. The small tail, also used as a steering rudder, is streamlined and triangular. The wings have been transformed into flippers and you don’t see a single feather. But they do contain all the bones of a wing suitable for flying.
