Bartolomé and Santiago Islands
After a nice voyage from Chinese Hat, we woke up early this morning to visit the fantastic island of Bartolomé. We embarked on a pre-breakfast hike to energize ourselves for the rest of the day. Our goal: to hike the 150 meters above sea level to the summit of the island. As soon as we arrived, we observed the impressive spatter cones that make up the landscape on the back side of the island. These amazing volcanic structures look like melted chocolate, and it seems as though the eruption happened only yesterday. Once at the top of Bartolomé, we enjoyed a charming view of the magical landscape and a scenic overlook of the dramatic Pinnacle Rock.
Back on board and after eating breakfast, it was time to get our gear ready for a swimming and snorkeling excursion at the beach. During our time in the water, we were surrounded by all the incredible marine life that the Galápagos shallow water offers us. The colorful reef fish looked simply amazing swimming around us, and the baby sea lions kept on playing making bubbles as if trying to get our attention.
We left Bartolomé Island behind and sailed to our next visiting spot: the magical Santiago Island. We began with an emotive wet landing on a black sand beach at Egas Port. During our hike we enjoyed this amazing view of marine iguanas getting some sun – it just looked like a scene from Jurassic Park. We saw intertidal life everywhere we looked. The Sally lightfoot crabs were so numerous that it looked like a red carpet had been draped over the lava rocks, and the shore birds were flying from rock to rock looking for the perfect meal in between them. At the end of the trail, the cute fur sea lions were laying on the rocks as if they were waiting for our company. On our way back, we enjoyed the sounds of nature and listened to the curious Galápagos mockingbirds who were giving us a concert.
Today we had a wonderful Galápagos magical day aboard National Geographic Endeavour, a day that definitely will remain with us as the experience of a lifetime.
