Our day started early in the morning with a fast-paced power walk up the wooden stairs of Bartolome Island. Once we had reached the summit, we enjoyed the magnificent picturesque setting, where naturalist Walter Perez explained volcanism and the geological dynamics of this small island, formed by tuff and covered by spatter cones. Today was a clear day, and we could easily see far into the distance from this vantage point. We counted almost 10 islands and islets surrounding Bartolome. The incredible view was definitely worth the challenging hike, and it was clear why this young, dry and uncolonized island stands out as one of the most iconic visitor’s sites in the protected area of the Galapagos National Park.
After the hike, our groups enjoyed water activities, either from the beach or in deeper water. Swimming with penguins was the highlight of the morning, together with sightings of white-tipped reef sharks. Other groups enjoyed the glass bottom boat activity, from which we spotted razor surgeons, king-angels, Panamic sergeant majors, Cortez-rainbow wrasses, creoles, and blue-chin parrot fishes swimming along the shallow, rocky bottom.
At noon, we began navigating away from Bartolome Island, and heading off to Santiago island. During our positioning, the remnant ash cones forming the Bambridge islets were the main attraction, and we were excited for the opportunity to spot some great pink flamingoes, which hold a small population here. Our guests were out on the external decks, keeping their binoculars ready to see them.
Once we had anchored at Chinese Hat, the expedition our groups split up for either swimming from the small turquoise waters and coralline sandy beach, or deep-water snorkeling along the coast of Santiago Island. We hoped to spot more penguins on this excursion, and we were not disappointed! Several of these beautiful marine birds joined us for a swim.
Right before sunset, the water began to get a little rocky, but we were not going to let anything stop us. We went on a zodiac ride for our last chance to get close-up photos of the Galapagos penguins, which are the second smallest penguin in the world, and unique to these islands. The very young side of Santiago offered us an outstanding scenery surrounded by dark lava field, spatter cones and candelabra cacti. It was just another amazing day exploring paradise.
