Last night we anchored by Bartholomew Island and had a nice quiet night. We began our journey early this morning with an invigorating walk to the top of Bartholomew Island. This island has a unique volcanic landscape and its geological features are well preserved. We had a rather cool morning that worked well for our hike.
As we started to walk we were surprised by the presence of a juvenile Galapagos hawk sitting comfortably on a hand rail. After observing us for a while it finally took off and went away. After climbing up to the summit of Bartholomew, we were rewarded by the view we got of the pinnacle rock with Santiago Island in the background with its black extensive lava flows. We returned to our ship to have breakfast and then back to Bartholomew Island for swimming, deep water snorkeling, or to go on a ride on our glass bottom boat. We swam with different species of fish, some of guests also encounter white-tipped reef sharks and sea stars all over the place.
As we returned aboard we headed towards Chinese Hat Islet and we spent the afternoon snorkeling while others went to a small nearby beach that is also occupied by Galapagos sea lions. We all came back on board, changed and went on a Zodiac ride along the coast of Santiago Island and Chinese Hat. There we looked for Galapagos penguins, herons, and sea lions. The volcanic environment here is remarkable as we find red-orange old lava with tall old candelabra cacti growing on it surrounded by fresh black pahoe-hoe lava.
The afternoon ended with a great sunset that we observed as we returned from our Zodiac ride.
