This morning the National Geographic Islander was anchored in a calm bay surrounded by several islets that form Bainbridge. We had breakfast and then we were ready to start another day full of adventures.

Sombrero Chino is the name of the place we visited this cloudy morning.  We took a Zodiac ride in search of Galapagos penguins and other creatures such as herons, noddie terns, boobies, sea lions and hawks. Some of these animals are found also on along the edge of Santiago Island because there is only a channel that separates these two islands.  Santiago, or James Island, was Darwin’s favorite and it is our “adopted” island. For many years we have supported all conservation and restoration projects on the island, and slowly but surely we are seeing success:  Goats and pigs gone, vegetation recovering.

After our wonderful ride we came back to our ship, suited up and went snorkeling!  We saw sharks, parrotfish, and best of all, Galapagos marine iguanas feeding on algae underwater.  Where else in the world could this be seen? The visibility was excellent and the current took us along freely and effortlessly. Then our guests enjoyed jumping off the ship to go for a swim.

By the afternoon the captain had repositioned the ship northward and anchored next to Sullivan Bay. Here the walk was extraordinary as we traversed over “pa-hoe-hoe’ lava, rippled and smooth.  Mother Nature had carved elegant folds long before the great sculptors mastered the technique in marble. One group decided to stay near shore and focus on their photography skills with our photography instructor while others walked the entire loop that took them behind a large, red cinder cone. We stopped for a minute and listened to the silence, an increasingly rare commodity in this hectic world of ours.

Late afternoon, on our return to the ship, we enjoyed a magnificent sunset.  The sky was clear, perfect for tonight’s star gazing.  We had a guest who is an expert astronomer and he gave us a lecture about constellations and then we met on the sun deck to learn about the magical celestial sky.