Bartolomé & Santiago Islands
It was six o’clock when we received the wake up call. At the first sight, the landscape we observed looked different. On one side, the island of Santiago showed us very colorful lava fields with green highlands surrounded by clouds. On the other side, Bartolomé looked barren, but incredibly this small island is one the most visited places thanks to its beautiful geological landscape.
Early in the morning we began our visit climbing up to the top of Bartolomé. Observing the geology of the island we saw ancient volcanoes of different sizes, telling us this place was very active thousands of years ago; while we were ascending, the landscape looked magnificent, with a close-up of the Pinnacle Rock and many other islands at the distance, such as Chinese Hat, Santa Cruz and Santiago. This one with its black lava fields resulted from the last eruption, which occurred 110 years ago.
After breakfast, we landed at Bartolomé again, but this time for snorkeling from the golden beach. Our guests had the opportunity to observe many different species of tropical fish, invertebrates and white tipped reef sharks. It was almost noon when we headed back to the National Geographic Islander and observed a group of penguin swimming indifferently just beside our Zodiac. Our guests took many pictures of these beautiful birds.
As soon we came back, we started sailing to Santiago and at 3PM our activities started with kayaking along James Bay or Puerto Egas coastline. The sea was calm; therefore our guest could approach up to the cliffs, observing caves and many black beaches.
The last activity began with us walking along the shore of Santiago. On the grottos, our guests could walk freely looking for fur sea lions. Certainly we found many resting on the rocks, but other attractions captivated our attention, such as migratory birds, yellow crowned night herons and small bridges of lava, the result of collapsed lava tubes beneath. After sunset, we finished our adventure, and at the distance a Galápagos hawk on the top of a tree looked at us as if saying goodbye.
