Bartolomé Island and Chinese Hat
We started our day exploring one of the most emblematic places of the Galápago, Bartolomé Island. The light was perfect and the landscape was breathtaking. On our way to the summit we learned about the geology of the place, surrounded by different kinds of parasitic cones and lava tubes; it was a great experience. From the top of the Island we were able to recognize the most famous landscape of the Galápagos, where Bartolomé Island shows both the north and south beaches.
After breakfast onboard the National Geographic Endeavour we were ready for the next activities of the day. We were able to organize our morning depending on our skills and enthusiasm. We had deep-water snorkeling, glass-bottom boating, or just leisure time to spend on the golden-colored sandy beach of Bartolomé Island.
Some of us had the chance to explore the underwater world of Bartolomé, snorkeling with many species of tropical fish, white-tipped reef sharks, some rays and sea lions. The Galápagos penguins inhabit this bay, and we saw some of them swimming by the shoreline of the beach.
In the afternoon we disembarked at Chinese Hat and had a walk over the young lava fields. Some sea lions were seen, along with many shorebirds. This afternoon we also had one of the greatest snorkeling outings in the Galápagos, along the Coast of Santiago Island, where some of us even had the chance to see marine iguanas feeding underwater, white-tipped reef sharks, tiger snake eels and big schools of semi tropical fish.
