Bartolomé & Santiago Islands

This morning we were up before the sun; Expedition Leader Lucho sang out a pleasant optional wake up call at 0600, and sunrise today was at 0612! We boarded the Zodiacs and motored across a mirror calm bay to disembark on the small cement dock on Bartolomé Island. The hike along a boardwalk and up 372 wide wooden stairs was magnificent. The naturalists pointed out pioneer vegetation with miniscule flowers, scurrying lava lizards and they explained the volcanology of the archipelago as we photographed lava tubes, and parasitic cinder and tuff cones.

The view from the summit, of the extensive, jet black and barren 111 year old lava field on Santiago, which surrounds and contrasts with older red craters, and of the golden and white beaches and lush green mangrove stands, was worth every gasping breath that took us to the top. As the sun climbed into the sky and sweat dripped from our brows we were all glad to be out early and not a single person complained of the pre-sunrise wake up call! Back on board for a hearty and scrumptious breakfast, at least we felt we deserved the good food.

We spent the later morning hours on the golden crescent beaches of Bartolomé. On the south beach we hiked to the base of looming tuff cliffs, admired an oystercatcher probing with its brilliant red bill for food, counted the previous night’s sea turtle tracks, and spied a group of penguins bobbing off shore. Returning to the landing beach we donned our wet suits, masks, snorkels and fins and swam out to explore the underwater world of Galápagos. There were huge schools of black striped salema, better known as “booby bait” since this is the fish species that these diving sea birds hunt relentlessly. There were also huge schools of yellow tailed razor fish, an octopus, varied sea stars, a shark and some fast moving penguins. For many of us, this was a fabulous first taste of snorkeling.

In the afternoon we snorkeled again, this time off a black sand beach, where playful sea lions, a few sea turtles and many colorful reef fish kept us entertained. The hike along the coastline at Puerto Egas was superb. At low tide there is nothing more lovely in the entire Galápagos Islands than a walk on the lava flows and eroded tuff stone of this dramatic shore. There were several fur seals sleeping on a shaded shelf above the deep blue ocean filled lava grottos. Bright red Sally Lightfoot crabs fed with two handed eagerness on the exposed green carpet of marine algae, exposed as the tide receded. We watched a sea lion pup swirl and twirl in his own private lava pool, iguanas grazing on closely cropped algae and, perhaps most mesmerizing of all, the waves churn and foam in the many flooded lava tubes. As the sun set with vivid yellow and orange rays against a gray sky we reluctantly returned to the National Geographic Islander. A magical day in Las Islas Encantadas!