Bartolomé Island
This was our first full day in the Galápagos Islands, and some of our guests had an early morning hike to the summit of Bartolomé Island. This small magical place is one of the most beautiful landscapes in Galápagos; its likeness is used in postcards, Galápagos books and even Hollywood movies, and Buzz Aldrin once said Bartolomé was the closest thing to walking on the moon.
Once we all reached the summit, our guests enjoyed the scenery of Bartolomé Island. We also counted more than a dozen islands far out in the distance. When we started heading down, the sun started warming up, and we all were very happy to have finished in the early hours of the day when the weather is much cooler.
We came back for a delicious breakfast on board the National Geographic Islander, and later on we met on the sky deck to dispense snorkeling gear to everyone. Soon after we started heading to a beautiful golden beach for a short exploratory walk over sand dunes. Here we could see the tracks of the female Pacific green sea turtles, all of them heading to the dunes, where they laid their eggs. Apart from that we also saw the second liveliest crab on the archipelago, the ghost crabs. A few coastal birds were also at the shore. After this short walk our water activities were amazing: we swam with penguins, sharks, rays and lots of colorful fish.
We started coming back on board for lunch and to reposition the ship. We did three hours navigation along the coast of Santiago Island, some of our guests where having a nap while others took in the views of Santiago Island from the National Geographic Islander.
As soon as we arrived at Puerto Egas, our deck crew were lowering the inflatable Zodiacs to take us ashore. This location is named after an Ecuadorian who tried to start a salt mining operation with no success, which ended up being a part of the human history of this visitor site. We started heading all the way up to the grottos to see the second species of endemic sea lions in Galápagos, and we were very successful. We also saw lava and yellow crowned night herons, and many other things while exploring the intertidal zone. This was a beautiful day and is only the beginning.
This was our first full day in the Galápagos Islands, and some of our guests had an early morning hike to the summit of Bartolomé Island. This small magical place is one of the most beautiful landscapes in Galápagos; its likeness is used in postcards, Galápagos books and even Hollywood movies, and Buzz Aldrin once said Bartolomé was the closest thing to walking on the moon.
Once we all reached the summit, our guests enjoyed the scenery of Bartolomé Island. We also counted more than a dozen islands far out in the distance. When we started heading down, the sun started warming up, and we all were very happy to have finished in the early hours of the day when the weather is much cooler.
We came back for a delicious breakfast on board the National Geographic Islander, and later on we met on the sky deck to dispense snorkeling gear to everyone. Soon after we started heading to a beautiful golden beach for a short exploratory walk over sand dunes. Here we could see the tracks of the female Pacific green sea turtles, all of them heading to the dunes, where they laid their eggs. Apart from that we also saw the second liveliest crab on the archipelago, the ghost crabs. A few coastal birds were also at the shore. After this short walk our water activities were amazing: we swam with penguins, sharks, rays and lots of colorful fish.
We started coming back on board for lunch and to reposition the ship. We did three hours navigation along the coast of Santiago Island, some of our guests where having a nap while others took in the views of Santiago Island from the National Geographic Islander.
As soon as we arrived at Puerto Egas, our deck crew were lowering the inflatable Zodiacs to take us ashore. This location is named after an Ecuadorian who tried to start a salt mining operation with no success, which ended up being a part of the human history of this visitor site. We started heading all the way up to the grottos to see the second species of endemic sea lions in Galápagos, and we were very successful. We also saw lava and yellow crowned night herons, and many other things while exploring the intertidal zone. This was a beautiful day and is only the beginning.
