Bartholomew and Santiago Islands
How can one describe a day which brings so much to mind all at once? It dawned clear and fresh. This “rainy” season has so far forgotten the rains, so the air is much drier than normal, not an easy life for those who need the humidity: plants, terrestrial vertebrates and invertebrates. For us however, the weather is ideal. Early morning has us hiking up to the top of Bartholomew Island and an almost-360-degree view of the surrounding islands. Santiago stood closest and clearest, followed by Jervis, the Beagle and Bainbridge Islets, Santa Cruz, Daphne Major and Minor. Below us lay the isthmus of Bartholomew framed by her two crescent beaches of golden sand separated by a verdant green mangrove forest.
After breakfast we traversed the sand dune to one side of the mangroves, to cross from the northern to the southern beach, and discovered nesting brown pelicans with chicks in the nest, a Galápagos shark cruising close in to shore, and a very large sea lion who rolled, basked, scratched and stretched in the shallows in front of us. He was obviously not in a hurry to go anywhere. Snorkelling off the northern beach exposed penguins, wrasses, angelfish and others down below us, while Pinnacle Rock towered above.
But once is never enough, and so in the afternoon we again set out to see what could be seen in James Bay, around the other side of Santiago Island. East Pacific green sea turtles were caught grazing the shallows; practically oblivious to our presence, though the black-tipped reef sharks that were cruising the beach when we first entered the water soon disappeared into the blue.
The late afternoon walk along the outer coast of Puerto Egas had an impressive surf pounding the shore. The lava fissures and tubes were surging with ocean water, and just as quickly draining. Galápagos fur seals (or “fur sea lions” as some say), lounged and slept a few short yards away from the Galápagos sea lions. American oystercatchers, sanderlings, whimbrels, turnstones and even Darwin’s finches foraged the intertidal zone. Marine iguanas were swimming the tidal pools, occasionally grazing. The almost full moon became brighter behind rose-tinted clouds as we returned home for the evening.
How can one describe a day which brings so much to mind all at once? It dawned clear and fresh. This “rainy” season has so far forgotten the rains, so the air is much drier than normal, not an easy life for those who need the humidity: plants, terrestrial vertebrates and invertebrates. For us however, the weather is ideal. Early morning has us hiking up to the top of Bartholomew Island and an almost-360-degree view of the surrounding islands. Santiago stood closest and clearest, followed by Jervis, the Beagle and Bainbridge Islets, Santa Cruz, Daphne Major and Minor. Below us lay the isthmus of Bartholomew framed by her two crescent beaches of golden sand separated by a verdant green mangrove forest.
After breakfast we traversed the sand dune to one side of the mangroves, to cross from the northern to the southern beach, and discovered nesting brown pelicans with chicks in the nest, a Galápagos shark cruising close in to shore, and a very large sea lion who rolled, basked, scratched and stretched in the shallows in front of us. He was obviously not in a hurry to go anywhere. Snorkelling off the northern beach exposed penguins, wrasses, angelfish and others down below us, while Pinnacle Rock towered above.
But once is never enough, and so in the afternoon we again set out to see what could be seen in James Bay, around the other side of Santiago Island. East Pacific green sea turtles were caught grazing the shallows; practically oblivious to our presence, though the black-tipped reef sharks that were cruising the beach when we first entered the water soon disappeared into the blue.
The late afternoon walk along the outer coast of Puerto Egas had an impressive surf pounding the shore. The lava fissures and tubes were surging with ocean water, and just as quickly draining. Galápagos fur seals (or “fur sea lions” as some say), lounged and slept a few short yards away from the Galápagos sea lions. American oystercatchers, sanderlings, whimbrels, turnstones and even Darwin’s finches foraged the intertidal zone. Marine iguanas were swimming the tidal pools, occasionally grazing. The almost full moon became brighter behind rose-tinted clouds as we returned home for the evening.
