The day started with a beautiful sunrise as we landed at Bartolome Island at 6:15 in the morning. The hike this morning was an energetic climb to the summit of the island where all of our guests learned about the geology of Galapagos while observing a number of splatter cones, tuff cones and lava tubes. The light was great for photography, so our guests dedicated a lot of their time to capture the scenic beauty of Bartolome Island. It was 08:00 am and everybody returned on board for breakfast.
After breakfast, starting at 09:00 am, our guest had the chance to go ashore to relax, swim and/or snorkel. The snorkelers had a fantastic time as they saw a good diversity of fish and invertebrates. They viewed king angelfish, yellow tailed surgeonfish, white tipped reef sharks, Pacific sea turtles, sea stars, and a sea cucumber. Everybody had a great time as they learned about the Galapagos sea life and got back on board by 10:30.
Once back on board our guests attended a photography talk given by a member of the expedition team of the National Geographic Islander. The idea of this talk was to give some photography tips to the guests so that they could improve the quality of their photos as we moved forward with this expedition. After the talk everybody enjoyed a delightful lunch offered by the hospitality department.
By 15:15 we began exploring again and our guests joined the expedition staff on a deep-water snorkeling adventure near the cliffs of Rabida Island. During this outing our guests had a wonderful time as they were able to swim and play with a group of young Galapagos sea lions that where swimming along the coast of this island. Some of our fellow travelers enjoyed kayaking along the cliffs of this Island while observing Galapagos marine iguanas, sea turtles and a couple of playful Galapagos sea lions swimming along the coast.
It was another exciting day in the Galapagos!
