Bartholomew and Santiago Island
What a wonderful day we had. We started very early with our climb of 372 steps almost to Heaven to see an impressive view of Pinnacle rock and the surrounding islands. We learned about the formation of the Islands, which are all underwater volcanoes that rose to the surface of the water many years ago.
We returned to the MS Islander to have breakfast and soon after we tried on snorkeling gear and got ready for another outing. This time we disembarked on a golden brown beach formed by the disintegration of white coral and volcanic ashes. On the other side of the island there were white-tipped reef sharks in very shallow water. During our snorkeling activity this morning we swam with Galápagos penguins. These are the third smallest penguins in the world and this morning they were feeding on very tiny fish called black-striped salemas.
In the afternoon, while snorkeling off the black sand beach at Puerto Egas, Santiago, a pacific green sea turtle came to have a closer look at some of our guests and then gently swam amongst snorkelers and disappeared into the blue. On the trail that we took later along the coast, we found Galápagos mockingbirds and the Galápagos fur seal whose populations were highly decimated almost to extinction by fur seal hunters in 1900s.
Marine iguanas were soaking up the last rays of the sun and absorbing the heat from the basaltic rocks along the shore, paying no attention to our presence. Our guests were amazed by the fearlessness of the animals, especially when two small birds flew back and forth among us as they caught insects on the wing. At one point they were so close I was able to take this photo of this juvenile yellow warbler.
What a wonderful day we had. We started very early with our climb of 372 steps almost to Heaven to see an impressive view of Pinnacle rock and the surrounding islands. We learned about the formation of the Islands, which are all underwater volcanoes that rose to the surface of the water many years ago.
We returned to the MS Islander to have breakfast and soon after we tried on snorkeling gear and got ready for another outing. This time we disembarked on a golden brown beach formed by the disintegration of white coral and volcanic ashes. On the other side of the island there were white-tipped reef sharks in very shallow water. During our snorkeling activity this morning we swam with Galápagos penguins. These are the third smallest penguins in the world and this morning they were feeding on very tiny fish called black-striped salemas.
In the afternoon, while snorkeling off the black sand beach at Puerto Egas, Santiago, a pacific green sea turtle came to have a closer look at some of our guests and then gently swam amongst snorkelers and disappeared into the blue. On the trail that we took later along the coast, we found Galápagos mockingbirds and the Galápagos fur seal whose populations were highly decimated almost to extinction by fur seal hunters in 1900s.
Marine iguanas were soaking up the last rays of the sun and absorbing the heat from the basaltic rocks along the shore, paying no attention to our presence. Our guests were amazed by the fearlessness of the animals, especially when two small birds flew back and forth among us as they caught insects on the wing. At one point they were so close I was able to take this photo of this juvenile yellow warbler.
