Bartolomé and Rabida Island
Today we started our day before breakfast taking advantage of the cool early morning weather. We walked up about 400 steps to the summit of Bartolomé Island, on our way we did several stops to learn about the interesting geological formations found in the area. Bartolomé is considered an open text book of geology; shield volcanoes and parasitic cones were all around this small island. We found some pioneer plants such as lava cacti, Tiquilia and spurge on this barren island. After breakfast, we went snorkeling from a golden sandy beach. Colorful reef fish, sharks and rays were seen while we floated in calm, clear and warm water.
In the afternoon we continued with our activities which were kayaking or snorkeling along the red cliffs of Rabida Island. We had cool weather with calm waters; the underwater activity was amazing. We spotted white tipped reef sharks, marine iguanas, sea lions, sea turtles and several species of colorful reef fishes. Later some of us went for a hike on the island; we found several species of shore birds such as semi palmated plovers, sand pipers and American oystercatchers.
Back on the beach we got the chance to take pictures of sea lions with the unique red background of Radida Island. It was a great way to end the second day of our expedition, there will be much more to come….
