Bartolome & Santiago Islands
We disembarked before breakfast this morning, on a small concrete dock at Bartolome for a climb to the summit of this barren, rocky island. Our naturalists pointed out several species of pioneer plant and a few lava lizards and grasshoppers, but this island was relatively devoid of animal life. The geological features and the view from the top were, however, spectacular!
After breakfast, followed by a snorkeling safety briefing and fitting for snorkeling equipment, we boarded the Zodiacs and headed to the golden beach of Bartolome. We hiked across a sand dune to the longer southern beach that is pitted with sea turtle nests and churned up with their wide tracks. Under the warm sand, turtle eggs are incubating and within a couple months the eggs will hatch. The hatchlings emerge at night and scurry down to the ocean.
Several of us walked to the end of the beach. We admired large Sally light foot crabs and a marine iguana feeding on algae exposed by the low tide. We found courting lava lizards, a couple lazy sea lions and at the very end, below impressive, eroded tuff cliffs, a pair of American oystercatchers feeding and caring for their tiny newly hatched chick.
Back at the landing beach most of our guests enjoyed a superb snorkeling outing. There were schools of razor fish and salema, pelican barracuda, tiny red cardinal fish and at least a dozen other species. Some of us spotted a couple of white-tipped reef sharks, a fast moving penguin and a graceful and playful sea lion. At noon we reluctantly left this lovely beach and, escorted by frigate birds, the National Geographic Islander navigated northwest to our next visitor’s site.
In the afternoon, many of us donned our still damp wetsuits and snorkeled from the black sand beach at Puerto Egas. At least a half dozen sea turtles were the highlight of this adventure; we also saw sea lions, a couple of rays and many fish. We then walked along the coast and were amazed at all we saw: piles of marine iguanas; tiny sea lions nursing and “teenagers” frolicking in tide pools; whimbrels, tattlers and sanderlings; another darling oystercatcher chick; and fur seals sheltered under lava cliffs and swimming in beautiful deep grottos. The sunset and orange faded to pink as we returned in contentment to the National Geographic Islander.
We disembarked before breakfast this morning, on a small concrete dock at Bartolome for a climb to the summit of this barren, rocky island. Our naturalists pointed out several species of pioneer plant and a few lava lizards and grasshoppers, but this island was relatively devoid of animal life. The geological features and the view from the top were, however, spectacular!
After breakfast, followed by a snorkeling safety briefing and fitting for snorkeling equipment, we boarded the Zodiacs and headed to the golden beach of Bartolome. We hiked across a sand dune to the longer southern beach that is pitted with sea turtle nests and churned up with their wide tracks. Under the warm sand, turtle eggs are incubating and within a couple months the eggs will hatch. The hatchlings emerge at night and scurry down to the ocean.
Several of us walked to the end of the beach. We admired large Sally light foot crabs and a marine iguana feeding on algae exposed by the low tide. We found courting lava lizards, a couple lazy sea lions and at the very end, below impressive, eroded tuff cliffs, a pair of American oystercatchers feeding and caring for their tiny newly hatched chick.
Back at the landing beach most of our guests enjoyed a superb snorkeling outing. There were schools of razor fish and salema, pelican barracuda, tiny red cardinal fish and at least a dozen other species. Some of us spotted a couple of white-tipped reef sharks, a fast moving penguin and a graceful and playful sea lion. At noon we reluctantly left this lovely beach and, escorted by frigate birds, the National Geographic Islander navigated northwest to our next visitor’s site.
In the afternoon, many of us donned our still damp wetsuits and snorkeled from the black sand beach at Puerto Egas. At least a half dozen sea turtles were the highlight of this adventure; we also saw sea lions, a couple of rays and many fish. We then walked along the coast and were amazed at all we saw: piles of marine iguanas; tiny sea lions nursing and “teenagers” frolicking in tide pools; whimbrels, tattlers and sanderlings; another darling oystercatcher chick; and fur seals sheltered under lava cliffs and swimming in beautiful deep grottos. The sunset and orange faded to pink as we returned in contentment to the National Geographic Islander.
