The week is ending. Every day has been an adventure for our intrepid guests, with each island a new experience. Today we woke up early to walk to the top of Bartolome, an iconic place in Galapagos. Once we got to the summit the view is astonishing—many geological formations are visible, from a big “father volcano” to several parasitic cones, cinder cones, or just petrified lava flows. Everything smells of geology here. It is what we call a “moonscape.”
So, our early adventure brought happy guests back on board. We enjoyed it, felt like “early birds getting the worms,” and the activity was fantastic. As we approached National Geographic Endeavour breakfast smelled great, we recovered our energy, and a few minutes later we jumped on one of the two beaches that forms a nice bay, decorated by the famous Pinnacle Rock, to snorkel, swim, or rest on the beach sunbathing. The water is warm, and after all our groups disembarked and suited up the beach looked empty, because everybody was in the water. Usually this spot is great for snorkeling, and indeed today sharks, rays, turtles, and penguins were seen.
Our captain took National Geographic Endeavour to another destination, this time to Chinese Hat, a small cone located at the south of James Island. And on our way there we had a very cool gift—many bottlenose dolphins came surfing close to our ship. We were having lunch at the time but who cares about that! We left our tables for few minutes and went to enjoy this unique experience.
Once we arrived we had more water activities. We snorkeled along the coast of James Island and saw many colorful fish, sea fans, sea urchins, and more sharks. Some others preferred to go to swim on very small coral sandy beach where some sea lions were resting. Afterwards we had a Zodiac ride along the coast looking for penguins, pelicans, herons, and more. Penguins are one of the main attractions of the islands as well. They are very small, the only penguins found on the equator, and have adapted to survive in warm water and bask on black lava.
Today our guests celebrate Thanksgiving. We are very happy because it has been another great day in this paradise. Nature has given us her best, and to say thank you doesn’t feel like enough. Maybe changing our perception about Mother Earth and helping with conservation is what we have to do. Galapagos changes people’s lives, changes their attitudes toward how important is to live in balance with our planet, and to take care of it. Tonight we had a special dinner to celebrate the miracle of life.
