Bartolomé & Santiago Islands
The expedition at the Galápagos Archipelago on board the National Geographic Endeavour continues; this time we visited two different islands: Bartolomé and Santiago.
Our first activity of the day was a pre-breakfast outing to hike up to the summit of Bartolomé; the volcanic landscape together with the scenic view from the very top of the island was a highlight. An “open book of geology” is perhaps the best description of this site since there are so many different kinds of volcanic materials as well as parasitic cones.
Later in the morning, after a delicious breakfast, a golden sandy beach was our destination; the deep-water snorkeling plus the glass bottom boating were the activities offered. We saw a lot of fish, and some of our guests had the great chance to snorkel with a white tipped reef shark and a couple of penguins. The beach was beautiful; we had a sunny morning, just the best time to sun bathe and take some pictures of the wildlife: penguins and a sea lion pursuing fish showed up very close to us!
In the afternoon we visited Santiago Island, anchoring at James Bay. The first ones to land were the hikers, followed by the snorkelers. We started the hike from a black sandy beach, passing close to the remnants of a salt mine. This Island encloses a lot of human history; many whalers and buccaneers have visited this Island in the past looking for fresh water and food. Charles Darwin spent most of his time here collecting species; we felt like we were following his footsteps. The shoreline of Santiago had a lot of tide pools full of sea birds and sea lions; finally we found Galápagos fur sea lions very close to the trail.
The snorkelers that stayed at the beach had an amazing time too; they found a lot of colorful fish on a black volcanic sea floor, and the beach had some big tuff stone formations and wildlife.
We all came back on board to watch the sunset and to get ready for our farewell cocktail; during recap time we shared our thoughts and highlights about this trip in the Galápagos, I am really sure that these islands will stay forever in the hearts of our guests.
