Galapagos Day 3

Day 3 - May 26

Today started off with a 6:00AM pick up from the hotel, to make the 40-minute drive down to the dock to board our boat for our trip out to Bartolome Island. The excursion usually had 20 people, but this group was small and only consisted of 7 people including ourselves. Which was nice, because we could spread out on the boat and not feel crowded. Due to the early pick up time we were served breakfast on the boat which consisted of tea, bananas, yogurt, granola, cheese, bread and butter. Overall it was a nice simple breakfast.

The trip out to Bartolome Island takes about 2 hours, including the small detour around Daphne Major. The trip out was relatively smooth, with small 1-2 foot waves. We also saw several sea turtles swimming in the ocean along the way. When we got to the island we boarded the RIB to over get onto the island and walk up the very long path to the top of the island. Fun fact, according to our guide the walkway on the island was put in place by the film crew of “Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World” since part of the movie was filmed in the islands bay. The walk way has large square lookout points where the cameras were placed. We went up over 200 stairs to get to the top of the island, which is about a 40-60 minute hike. There are only small lizards on the island that turn cannibalistic during the dry season. That truly is survival of the fittest. After the hike, we came back down boarded the RIB and went around to the major feature of the island called Pinnacle Rock. Near the rock we saw two sea lions, and three Galapagos Penguins. The Galapagos Penguins are tropical and are the second smallest penguin in the world. The smallest penguin is the fairy penguin, found in Australia. I have seen it in the wild. I’m just slowly working up the penguin size chain. After the trip around Pinnacle Rock, we went back to the main boat to change for snorkeling.

Snorkeling in the Bartolome Bay was nice as there were a lot of fish. Sadly neither the sea lions nor the penguins we saw got into the water while we were snorkeling. I did see several types of starfish, a small stingray, parrot fish, some small orange/red fish, an angel fish, and a bunch of other fish I should know the name of, but have forgotten. I am using the small underwater camera Jim bought for kayaking, for photos while snorkeling. After snorkeling it was back on the boat for lunch. We had fish (or maybe chicken), a chunky tomato type sauce, rice, a mixture of beans and corn in cream dressing, and small salad of mostly red cabbage. For desert it was white pineapple and papaya. After lunch we headed back to Santa Cruz.

 

The first hour of the trip back was slightly rough with 3-4 foot waves. Apparently in the afternoon the sea gets rough until you are in the area protected by Santa Cruz Island. I was up on the top deck and really felt the boat sway side to side. Once back on Santa Cruz we had a 40-minute bus ride back to the hotel to conclude the day.