Bartolome and Santiago Islands
We awoke to a spectacular morning for our early morning exploratory walk to the top of Bartolome Island. The volcanic rocks of Bartolome are a geologist’s dream! Everything is so well exposed because the island is very barren with only a few pioneer plants covering the rocks. As we climbed, it was if we were reading a geology text book on volcanoes. We saw tuff cones, cinder cones, spatter cones and a variety of different aged lava flows, some with well-preserved lava tunnels. Incredible!
Our early morning excursion was followed by a fantastic breakfast outside on the deck of the ship. We then returned to Bartolome to hike over beautiful sand dunes to a long beach. Here we discovered white-tipped reef sharks circling in such shallow water that we were able to wade very close to them. Truly an amazing experience!
In the afternoon, our adventures on Santiago were the perfect way to end the week for our National Geographic Expedition. After sharing the water with numerous sea turtles during our snorkelling, we set off across the island in the golden rays of the afternoon sun to get our last photos and memories of this special place. We found many of the animals we had come to love and admire during our stay such as sea lions, marine iguanas, fur seals and even penguins enjoying the afternoon too. Upon our return to the pangas, we were treated to one last feeding frenzy by boobies fishing (see today’s photo of a booby just turning into a dive). A wonderful finale!
What a week, and what a special Expedition this has been. All our new memories and the incredible one on one moments we had with the different animals of the Galápagos have touched and changed us forever. How fortunate we are that a place like this archipelago still exists and how much fun it has been for me to explore it with you and your family. I hope together we will all work to ensure that these islands remained unchanged for our future generations to enjoy and experience.
We awoke to a spectacular morning for our early morning exploratory walk to the top of Bartolome Island. The volcanic rocks of Bartolome are a geologist’s dream! Everything is so well exposed because the island is very barren with only a few pioneer plants covering the rocks. As we climbed, it was if we were reading a geology text book on volcanoes. We saw tuff cones, cinder cones, spatter cones and a variety of different aged lava flows, some with well-preserved lava tunnels. Incredible!
Our early morning excursion was followed by a fantastic breakfast outside on the deck of the ship. We then returned to Bartolome to hike over beautiful sand dunes to a long beach. Here we discovered white-tipped reef sharks circling in such shallow water that we were able to wade very close to them. Truly an amazing experience!
In the afternoon, our adventures on Santiago were the perfect way to end the week for our National Geographic Expedition. After sharing the water with numerous sea turtles during our snorkelling, we set off across the island in the golden rays of the afternoon sun to get our last photos and memories of this special place. We found many of the animals we had come to love and admire during our stay such as sea lions, marine iguanas, fur seals and even penguins enjoying the afternoon too. Upon our return to the pangas, we were treated to one last feeding frenzy by boobies fishing (see today’s photo of a booby just turning into a dive). A wonderful finale!
What a week, and what a special Expedition this has been. All our new memories and the incredible one on one moments we had with the different animals of the Galápagos have touched and changed us forever. How fortunate we are that a place like this archipelago still exists and how much fun it has been for me to explore it with you and your family. I hope together we will all work to ensure that these islands remained unchanged for our future generations to enjoy and experience.
