The week starts with a beautiful sunrise, the day is warm and the ocean looks calm. It is 6:15 a.m. and I am getting ready to begin our journey of exploration. Every day is different, we know the islands very well, but we do not know what the island is going to offer to us today. We landed at 6:30 a.m. on a very small dock at the foot of a secondary volcano that forms Bartolome Island. It is a very famous and iconic place of Galapagos.
We walked all the way upstairs to get the summit of this dormant volcano, and along the trail we see some of the small volcano formations that decorate this place - which looks like Mars, or any other planet in our universe, more than it resembles Earth. Cinder cones, spatter cones, lava flows are seen everywhere. The landscape is inhospitable, deserted, and dramatic. It seems like no life occurs here, but closer you see some pioneer plants like lava cacti or tiny rock-likens that have colonized the barren lava, tiny lava lizards are feeding on small insects and some finches are eating seeds. Up, from the top, the view is magnificent; several islands are spotted far away, while some manta rays on the vast ocean are seen jumping and splashing, flipping over, probably to get rid of the parasites and clean their bodies.
We returned to our ship for breakfast, and then we moved out again for water activities.
There is a small beach at the foot of the Pinnacle Rock of Bartolome; here is a great place for snorkeling. We landed and started to swim along the coast. The first sighting was a marine turtle feeding on algae, and then farther in, thousands of tropical fish as parrots, streamer hog fishes, sea stars, sea urchins and orange coral attached to the rocks were seen by our explorers. The morning is hot, so to be in the water is the perfect place. At this time of the year the water is about 72 degrees F, and it feels comfortable to cool off.
Later we navigate to Rabida Island. From the distance it is so noticeable because of its red color. In fact, it is known as the “red island.” A large quantity of iron, a mineral presented in basalt formations, and that rusted with the oxygen of the atmosphere makes the island painted with that metallic red color. First, we snorkeled along the shoreline. The productivity of the oceans are high with the coming of the Humboldt marine current, it brings a lot of nutrients to Galapagos, and we saw tons of little tiny fish like salemas, anchovies and sardines while snorkeling. Once again we spotted marine turtles, multicolored fish and big aggregations of sea stars.
After having a great time in the water we went to walk on that beautiful red beach. Some sea lions were there resting after being in the ocean for several days getting some fish to survive. Behind the beach is a very small brackish water lagoon where pintail ducks were feeding on the very nutritious ooze, a line of salt bushes separate the lagoon from the beach, and here you see several of the land birds that are common in Galapagos, such as Galapagos mockingbirds, small ground finches, yellow warblers and Galapagos flycatchers. Finally, the frosting on the cake, we got a magnificent sunset that made the sky orange and red, what a gift for a wonderful day! Our guests came back on board happy and relaxed, commenting on how great the day was!
