Bartolomé & Rábida Islands
Today was our first full day visiting the Galápagos Island. The best way to start our expedition was with a pre-breakfast outing to Bartolomé Island; at this site we climbed approximately 370 steps to get to the top of the Island, where a viewpoint with a stoning volcanic landscape was waiting for us.
Bartolomé is like an open book of geology, our guests were so happy to see so many volcanic formations all concentrated just in one spot! After our early morning walk, we all returned for a well-deserved breakfast. Immediately afterwards we handed out snorkeling gear for going to the beach and having our first snorkeling outing of the week.
Big schools of colorful fish in turquoise waters are what our guests experienced snorkeling around the pinnacle rock of Bartolomé. It was a magic show of colors and close encounters with sharks and rays.
In the afternoon Rábida Island was our national park visitor’s site. Kayaking, deep water snorkeling and a nature hike were all the activities offered to our guests for the afternoon.
The two big highlights of the afternoon were a couple of Galápagos penguins that showed up for the kayakers and the snorkelers, and a greater flamingo that showed up for the walkers. If you think about these two sightings, you will know that the Galápagos Islands is probably one of the only places in the world where you get to see such diversity of life, creatures that belong to two different climate zones congregate here; it is like thinking of polar bears on white sandy beaches with coconut trees; it was for sure a very special day!