Bartolomé & Rabida Island
Over time life in the Galápagos Islands passed through a very drastic time of evolution and adaptation. Many did not make it, but plenty of species established themselves. Today our voyage took us a couple millions year back in time, as the Galápagos allows us to do by hopping among the different islands. We planned an early pre-breakfast hike up the 399 steps to the summit of Bartolomé — an island that I personally refer to as an open encyclopedia on geology.
On the volcanic landscape of Bartolomé, we see how life is able to gain a foothold — how hard it is to survive, and how some endemic plant life struggles to survive in this very rustic terrain. This is a land of volcanoes and lava tubes, which is decorated by the magical touch of volcanic spatter cones. The ground of this island looks like a moonscape and is home to some of the most interesting pioneering organisms. Lichens and grasses served as food for some of the lava lizards and insects living here. We also saw the rare “Lava Cacti,” which is not only an endemic species of cactus to the islands but also it is one of the seven endemic genera of plant unique to this archipelago (Brachyocerus).
After leaving the world of geology behind, we went out to explore the underwater wonders of the blue heart of this archipelago. Bartolomé is home to some very interesting vertical undersea walls, as well as rocky reefs and some coral heads. Being an island in the middle of the archipelago, this is a place that gets upwelling cells from different currents hitting the Galápagos Islands, bringing an interesting variety of fish from direferent sides of the planet. We were lucky to spot some white-tipped reef sharks, Pacific green sea turtles, tiger snake eels and great sea stars. The enchanted archipelago is a place where you can enjoy swimming with penguins and sea lions at the same time, an amazing place where two species from different hemispheres can be right next to you.
The National Geographic Islander navigated to a universe painted in red, this land is known as “Rabida Island “a land forgotten in time, a place like no other. In sailing from Bartolomé we jumped almost a million years into the future from our morning visitor site. We landed by the shoreline on a pretty red sand beach, where sea lions had declared it as their home. As soon as we started our expedition into the island some beautiful Greater flamingos (endemic subspecies) were sighted in the brackish water lagoon — I do have to mention that there aren’t many flamingos in this archipelago, we have a count of maybe 450 individuals the most. We have had an extended misty season this year allowing the lagoon to decrease in salinity and crustacean and algae variety life to appear, which have attracted the flamingos to this area.
The landscape here was breathtaking and the fauna was unique as always. We saw many land birds including Darwin’s finches and mockingbirds, which were an important part of the On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin.
We had another day full of wonders in this enchanted archipelago, a place where from the morning to the afternoon you can move from worlds that are millions of years apart in age, with different flora and fauna, with different taste of pure nature to share with us…
