This morning we enjoyed an early hike to the summit of Bartolome Island. This optional hike is spectacular and offers a great opportunity to learn about the geology of the Galapagos archipelago. To reach the top, where the views are spectacular, we needed to climb 372 steps. Once there we were delighted with one of the most iconic and picturesque places in the Galapagos, Pinnacle rock. There are two neighboring golden beaches and green in the middle and the great background of Santiago Island offers an additional contrast of colors- from the deep black lava flows to brown and red tuff cones.
We went back to the ship for breakfast and several of our guests got ready to enjoy their first snorkeling off the beach, while others preferred to snorkel off the Zodiacs. The waters around Bartolome are filled with colorful tropical fish, silvery fish, sea stars, white-tipped reef sharks and Galapagos penguins. The visibility today was fantastic! We also had time to include a very interesting talk held by our Photo Instructor, Celso Montalvo and to end a great morning our guests enjoyed a delicious Ecuadorian buffet.
The National Geographic Islander was repositioned near the next visitor site, Rabida Island. Rabida’s distinct attraction is the red color of the entire island and it is another great place to discuss the formation of the islands. This afternoon there were several options for our guests-kayaking, snorkeling off the zodiacs, natural history walks, and a short walk along the iconic, red sandy beach to focus on photography. It was so beautiful this afternoon! There were many Galapagos sea lions at the beach, posing and resting, we got great photos. There were several Galapagos mocking birds, Darwin finches, Galapagos doves, and the top predator of the Islands, the Galapagos hawk, was spotted.
It was an awesome day. From the early outings until sunset, Galapagos is a wonder of nature!
This great adventure will continue, as tomorrow we are heading toward the western part of the archipelago.
