Bartolomé and Santiago Islands
Early this morning we climbed up to the top of Bartolomé Island. There we learned about the formation of the archipelago and its geology. This island is famous for its landscape views – from the top we could see most of the islands of the central realm of the archipelago. We had great weather, warm and sunny. We hiked back to the shop and then, after breakfast we returned to the island again to go swimming and snorkeling. We had the best time in the water; there were many species of fish plus sea stars, a white-tipped reef shark and a penguin in the same region.
Once back aboard we hoisted anchor and headed to the western area of Santiago where we went on a great walk. We found a lot of marine iguanas feeding on algae while others were warming up in the sun. One lonely sea lion pup was waiting for its mother that was likely hunting far out at sea. A small group of Galápagos fur seals were aggressive towards each other; some others were playing and showed very little concern about our presence. We enjoyed every minute of our walk along the coast of this unique place.
Our day ended with a gorgeous sunset, and as the night approaches we began our recap with our best experiences of today.
