Before dawn we prepare our zodiacs for our early visit to this spectacular island, we call it an “Open Book of Geology”. This is one of the youngest islands in the Galapagos less than a million years old and one of the few that we can explore and climb to its very top.
This morning we land on a small cemented platform the National Park has built for an easier access to the island, as soon as we land we observe the boardwalk and railings that will lead it to the top. As we ascend we are able to observe the very unique flora of the island, truly adapted to the desert like landscape.
The views only get better and better as we go further up, the blue ocean in contrast with the orange color rocks, the beautiful golden light and the volcanic formations along the way make this hike one of the most scenic in the whole trip.
We get to the top and the extraordinary landscape is our reward, volcanic shores painted golden with the morning light, green vegetation covering partially some of the rocks and incredible peaks rising from the ocean. Our guests really enjoyed their experience on this island.
We came back to the ship to have breakfast and after two options were offered, snorkel off the beach and deep water snorkel, our guests were divided into groups and everybody participated. We had the opportunity to swim with turtles and penguins, what an incredible outing.
We returned to the ship for a well-deserved lunch with Ecuadorian delicacies and had some time for siesta as we repositioned to our visitor site for the afternoon.
As soon as we anchored we departed with kayaks, paddle boards, and snorkelers to explore the shores of the red island “Rabida” and we had a naturalist to take a group on land for hike. The snorkelers spotted some sea lions and turtles and the hikers shorebirds including a flamingo and oyster catchers.
Everybody participated in all the activities and we all came back with a big smile on our faces having had a fantastic day.
