This week we have been blessed, two times we found Dolphins and Whales, and today was not an exception – we did it again! But let me tell you how we started our day. We awoke up to radiant sun and then had breakfast to boost our energy for exploring the islands. Today we are on Chinese Hat, a very old tuff cone standing up above the ocean. Here you find a very small colony of penguins. What kind of penguins are they? That’s a very common question from our guests and we are very happy to answer that they are “Galapagos penguins” unique to these islands, the second smallest in the world, and the only one found on the Equator. When you think about penguins, a cold place with plenty of ice comes to your mind, but here it’s the opposite: you see penguins basking under the fierce sun, and sharing a rock with sea lions. Here they are friends. So, as soon as we spotted one during our Zodiac ride everyone took their cameras out to get pictures of these amazing aquatic sea birds that fly in the water and feed on small fish. When we got back to our ship we suited up and jumped into the water for a great snorkeling experience. What an amazing place! We found sting and eagle rays, sharks, stone scorpion fish, a school of salemas, king angel fish and more… and then suddenly, penguins came to swim with us. It was a gift of the day!
After our snorkeling we went back onboard and started to motor. Ten minutes later we found bottlenose dolphins one more time, jumping and playing at the bow of the National Geographic Islander. We could not believe how lucky we were! Then our captain continued our expedition while we were enjoying a good lunch.
In the afternoon we visited Sullivan Bay, a very new lava flow located on James Island. The geology of the place is very impressive. I heard comments from our travelers like, “it is like walking on the moon!” In fact, it seems like being out of our planet – we were moon walkers! Everywhere you look you find volcanic formations: tuff cones, spatter cones, lava flows and “hornitos” or driblets. Pahoehoe lava is the dominant kind here, it is flat, smooth lava that is easy to walk on. Our walk was spectacular and at the moment the sunlight turned reddish, all the color tones of the landscape and the sky changed to welcome the stars.
With the last remaining light we took a short Zodiac ride along the coast to see more Galapagos penguins. We found nine of them, they were beautiful. They looked so cute as they walked on the black rocks. Everybody was happy, and I felt pleased because our mission was accomplished. Well, “another great day on the paradise” as I always say, is gone. Tonight we’ll enjoy a BBQ dinner to celebrate how fortunate we‘ve been this week, and also because we are going to cross the Equator. Tomorrow is going to be the last day of our expedition, and a lot of surprises are coming with it.
