Today we sailed around Santiago Island, one of the central islands of the archipelago. We visited Bartolome in the morning and Sombrero Chino in the afternoon. With the very first light of the day, we hiked to the top of the volcano that formed Bartolome, with a magnificent 360-degree-view of the central islands. This walk takes place on a desert-like volcanic landscape that works as a good example for understanding how the very first islands looked like when they emerged.
After lunch, on board our Zodiacs, we rode in the shallow waters in between Sombrero Chino and Santiago, surrounded by young lava flows, less than 200 years old.
In this area there is a small colony of Galapagos penguins that were fishing at dusk. A group of six of them were swimming between the Zodiacs, allowing us to witness their cooperative hunting. They were fearless and photogenic, floating around and letting the current take them very close to our cameras.
After fishing, these penguins went on shore and gave us a show of their climbing skills over the sharp lava. This is one of the very few places on earth where penguins and cactus can be seen together.
