Bartolomé & Chinese Hat
Six-thirty in the morning, sun is out; we are ready for the first exploration of the day on this small island known for its fantastic volcanic landscape.
Three-hundred-seventy-six wooden steps make the boardwalk built by the national park some years ago to protect the island from erosion and also to help people get to the top of the island where you can have an outstanding view of the surroundings as well as some other islands in the vicinity. Very few animals are found here as the land is dominated by rocks and the soil is not as productive to the lack of humidity. Some lava lizards have adapted to the area as well as some Darwin finches and Galápagos doves, and sometimes you can see Galápagos hawks very close.
Vegetation is also very poor here, and the flora that lives here is so well adapted that they deserve a mention, especially the Galápagos lava cactus, a pioneer plant on the lava.
After this early outing we came back on board for breakfast and to get ready for the next activity of the day, snorkeling. A wet landing on pink color sand was the beginning of a water exploration with many chances to see fish, sharks, rays, turtles, sea stars, and always the possibility of swimming with the most playful animals of the Galápagos, the sea lions. Fortunately all of our predictions were correct; they were all found in abundance.
Our next destination was an island that looks very much like the Chinese hat from which its name is derived.
We began the afternoon with a deep-water snorkeling session along the coast of an island just in front of Chinese Hat.
There are some many different types of large and small colorful fish here, also there were large white tip reef sharks on the bottom, and a couple of sea lions came to entertain the snorkelers with their amazing charm and moves.
Something unexpected in this part of the world is penguins. But this island is home to the only tropical penguin in the world—the Galápagos penguin that lives and breeds here year round.
We met one in the water and it stayed very close to us for some time before it swam away for fish. Others were standing on the rocks almost as we snorkeled around.
Later on we returned to this spot to take pictures of them on the rocks. Many were here, and not too far from them were other animals—the beloved sea lions, so flexible and playful, in many respects like humans as they are mammals like us.
The day finished with an incredible sunset behind the hills of the island of Santiago just a few meters off Chinese Hat.
