Bartholomew and Santiago Islands
Today we had an incredible time as we had an early morning exploration onto the island of Bartholomew with a pre-breakfast outing; we climbed about 372 wooden steps so we could reach the summit of this island with the most outstanding and famous views of the Galápagos. During our climbing we found some Galápagos lava lizards just starting to warm up and along the cliffs we found some blue-footed boobies and brown pelicans flying above us.
Once aboard we regained our energy with a wonderful breakfast on the Teak Deck, as we had just perfect weather. We headed ashore again and had a very relaxing walk over a nice, soft, golden sand dune across the island where we encountered an unusually large group of Galápagos penguins of about 18-20, and also a few young pelicans trying to catch some fish; these ones started chasing the penguins away from their bay.
Some of our guests went snorkeling and had an amazing encounter with a couple of white-tipped reef sharks that pretty much ignored them and swam away. They also found an octopus around the same area, along with some Galápagos penguins in the water trying to catch little fish.
For the afternoon some of our young guests went on a soccer match and had a wonderful time swimming and snorkeling on the black beach of Santiago Island. This area used to be the home for people that were attracted to this island by a salt mine that ultimately closed; one can still find some of the ruins of the very small village.
During our trip in the afternoon we had very low tide and found lots of tidal pools where fish were trapped. We observed a large variety of marine invertebrates and some Galápagos sea lions and Galápagos fur seals, all surrounded by gorgeous lava and volcanic cinder formations shaped by the erosion of waves and wind.
We returned aboard the Polaristo share some of our highlights of the week and the day.
Today we had an incredible time as we had an early morning exploration onto the island of Bartholomew with a pre-breakfast outing; we climbed about 372 wooden steps so we could reach the summit of this island with the most outstanding and famous views of the Galápagos. During our climbing we found some Galápagos lava lizards just starting to warm up and along the cliffs we found some blue-footed boobies and brown pelicans flying above us.
Once aboard we regained our energy with a wonderful breakfast on the Teak Deck, as we had just perfect weather. We headed ashore again and had a very relaxing walk over a nice, soft, golden sand dune across the island where we encountered an unusually large group of Galápagos penguins of about 18-20, and also a few young pelicans trying to catch some fish; these ones started chasing the penguins away from their bay.
Some of our guests went snorkeling and had an amazing encounter with a couple of white-tipped reef sharks that pretty much ignored them and swam away. They also found an octopus around the same area, along with some Galápagos penguins in the water trying to catch little fish.
For the afternoon some of our young guests went on a soccer match and had a wonderful time swimming and snorkeling on the black beach of Santiago Island. This area used to be the home for people that were attracted to this island by a salt mine that ultimately closed; one can still find some of the ruins of the very small village.
During our trip in the afternoon we had very low tide and found lots of tidal pools where fish were trapped. We observed a large variety of marine invertebrates and some Galápagos sea lions and Galápagos fur seals, all surrounded by gorgeous lava and volcanic cinder formations shaped by the erosion of waves and wind.
We returned aboard the Polaristo share some of our highlights of the week and the day.
