We are halfway through our expedition on National Geographic Endeavour II, and it has been an incredible experience so far. Today we anchored in a place call Urbina Bay. We started the day with a wet landing on a black sand beach. The island’s unique coloration is due to inorganic sand consisting of pieces of weathered rock. On our walk, we had the chance to observe tortoises, turtles, land iguanas, and more. The wildlife found on the Galapagos Islands is incredible. After the walk, we enjoyed time on the beach and swimming back to the boat. Later in the day, we changed location to Tagus Cove, a collapsed cinder cone. We had the chance to practice kayaking and then enjoyed an extraordinary snorkel with penguins, flightless cormorants, rays, and various species of reef fish found in the marine reserve. At the end of the day, we hiked to the summits of the scoria cones found on Darwin Volcano.
10/3/2024
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National Geographic Endeavour II
Bartholomew Island and Sombrero Chino
We split into groups for different excursions this morning. Four groups went up the staircase to the top for the iconic view over the isthmus of Bartholomew Island and Pinnacle Rock. We walked past exposed volcanic formations of all sorts: spatter cones, tuff cones, and lava tubes. Two other groups chose to explore along the coast by Zodiac in hopes of Galapagos penguin sightings. All of us were successful in what we hoped for and even the walkers saw penguins near the dock where we disembarked! Both snorkeling off the beach and deep-water outings along the backside of the island were tremendously productive because we saw it all: penguins and sharks being the top species, and diving blue-footed boobies too! The afternoon had National Geographic Endeavour II anchored not too far south, off the coast of Santiago Island near Sombrero Chino. A dramatically barren, small volcanic cone where another snorkeling outing was offered and late-afternoon Zodiac rides to search yet one more time for penguins. We can never get enough of them!