Bartolomé & Santiago Island
To visit the Galápagos Islands is indeed a remarkable experience, one that will provide memories that will last a lifetime. Today we explored Bartolomé early in the morning with a long walk to the top of the island to see the magnificent volcanic formations that make this small place unique.
The island itself and nearby Santiago Island have geological features that make the region an open geology book for the visitor, due to the different types of lava, volcanic ash and the different colors on the rocks, evidence of an active volcanic past.
Later on we disembarked on the golden beach for a short stroll and snorkeling. The water at this time of the year is warm and calm and very inviting to explore and be part of the underwater realm.
The sea that surrounds the Galápagos is teeming with life of different regions of the Pacific Ocean due to the convergence of several major currents. Here we encountered myriads of tropical reef fish such as sharks and the ever charming and exceptional Galápagos penguins.
In the afternoon we landed and explored Santiago Island. This island is located in the central part of the archipelago and is famous for being visited by Charles Darwin in 1835.
This island has many highlights and is a typical place where the more you explore, the more you find and indeed it was my favorite of the trip for so many reasons. One of the most exciting experiences is the walk on the shoreline made of black lava and layers of ash home to hundreds of marine iguanas, crabs, sea lions and shorebirds to mention just a few.
The real highlight of the day was a big male sea lion that caught a large tuna fish and swam to the shore some 30 yards away from us with the bleeding prey in its mouth! It was chased by nearly a doze white tipped reef sharks that wanted to get their share.
Just an amazing week!
To visit the Galápagos Islands is indeed a remarkable experience, one that will provide memories that will last a lifetime. Today we explored Bartolomé early in the morning with a long walk to the top of the island to see the magnificent volcanic formations that make this small place unique.
The island itself and nearby Santiago Island have geological features that make the region an open geology book for the visitor, due to the different types of lava, volcanic ash and the different colors on the rocks, evidence of an active volcanic past.
Later on we disembarked on the golden beach for a short stroll and snorkeling. The water at this time of the year is warm and calm and very inviting to explore and be part of the underwater realm.
The sea that surrounds the Galápagos is teeming with life of different regions of the Pacific Ocean due to the convergence of several major currents. Here we encountered myriads of tropical reef fish such as sharks and the ever charming and exceptional Galápagos penguins.
In the afternoon we landed and explored Santiago Island. This island is located in the central part of the archipelago and is famous for being visited by Charles Darwin in 1835.
This island has many highlights and is a typical place where the more you explore, the more you find and indeed it was my favorite of the trip for so many reasons. One of the most exciting experiences is the walk on the shoreline made of black lava and layers of ash home to hundreds of marine iguanas, crabs, sea lions and shorebirds to mention just a few.
The real highlight of the day was a big male sea lion that caught a large tuna fish and swam to the shore some 30 yards away from us with the bleeding prey in its mouth! It was chased by nearly a doze white tipped reef sharks that wanted to get their share.
Just an amazing week!
