As part of our expedition through the Galapagos Archipelago, today we visited the island of Santiago. Located to the north of Santa Cruz Island, Santiago was one of four islands visited by Charles Darwin during his famous voyage of the Beagle.
We started our day with an early morning walk to the summit of Bartholomew Islet. Located on the eastern coast of Santiago, it is surrounded by the waters of Sullivan Bay—both the islet and the bay where named after a young officer aboard HMS Beagle.
Bartholomew Island has one of the most comfortable trails in this national park. It begins at a dock build out of polished lava rock, and continues onto a boardwalk that after around 370 steps leads to a few different viewpoints, and eventually to the summit. This vantage point overlooks Sullivan Bay and all of the surrounding islands.
As we took in the view from the summit, we looked down on Pinnacle Rock across a small harbor that ends in a beautiful beach, from where we would launch a snorkeling excursion after breakfast.
During lunch, the National Geographic Endeavour sailed a few miles further south, past the Bainbridge Islets, so as to anchor a few hundred meters to the north of Chinese Hat. This small parasitic cone is separated by a narrow sandy channel from the main island of Santiago.
Here, our guests had a chance to snorkel with Galapagos penguins and white spotted eagle rays. By the end of our afternoon, we took one more chance to take our Zodiacs out for a coastal exploration, which was rewarded with sightings of basking penguins and other sea birds resting along the rocky volcanic shores of the channel.
As I write these lines, I'm getting ready for tonight's recap session, after which Carlos, our expedition leader, will tell us about Genovesa Island, which we will visit tomorrow.
