Woke up at 5:40 so we would be ready to hit the Zodiacs by 6am. It is getting to the point where our dress options are wet bathing suit that smells bad or wet bathing suit that smells slightly less bad – nothing every fully dries here. And of course, we then have to squeeze into a wet and slightly smelly wetsuit, all before the sun is up. Yesterday, I had asked Jimmy, our Zodiac driver, if we could go underneath our ship between the catamaran pontoons and now it has become a thing – we go under the ship every time we take the zodiacs out. It is pretty low clearance, so I consider myself lucky that I’ve only hit my head once so far…
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| Heading under the boat |
Video of us going under the boat
Our new island today is Bartolome – a very small but stunningly beautiful island with a signature landmark - Pinnacle Rock.
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| Pinnacle Rock |
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| We snorkeled all around Pinnacle Rock |
The water was clear and bright blue with decent visibility. We jumped out of the zodiacs and were treated to white tipped reef sharks, rays, a playful sea lion, penguins, a bunch of brown and white puffer fish, and more.
Reef Shark Another Reef Shark Sharks up close and personal
Back to the ship for a quick rinse and breakfast, and then back out again for a hike up 369 steps to the highest point on Bartolome with an amazing view of the full archipelago.
When we pulled up to the Zodiac landing spot, there were three sea lions lounging on the stairs, completely blocking our entrance. We had to do some clapping and towel waving to get them to vacate while we landed. Again, animals in Galapagos are not afraid of humans, so they were not so quick to vacate their position.
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| Man versus three sea lions |
Man versus sea lions - the video
It is unusual in Galapagos to have man made anything; however, it seems that this island gets so many tourists that the ground was eroding quickly, thus, a walkway with the steps was built to mitigate.
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| From the point 369 Steps... Not sure about the "crop circle" |
The views from the top where just stunning - apparently, this view is commonly used for Galapagos tourism adds.
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| From lower down - the Archipelago |
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| The postcard picture |
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| The better postcard picture |
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| The best postcard picture |
Back to the boat to suit up again for another walk-in snorkel option. Most of us went again and were rewarded with another white tipped reef shark, puffers, rays, and some penguins swimming with us. Today is our last day and while I believe we have one more snorkel option, I can officially say that I am snorkeled out.
After lunch, we had a short cruise to the next island over,
Santiago, for our final hike of the trip on black lava rocks at Sullivan Bay. Damon decided to sit this one out – the
thought of spending an hour hiking on black lava rocks followed by “beach time”
is just not his cup of tea. Unwilling to
miss out an anything, especially our final outing, I boarded the Zodiac with
the rest of the group and headed to the beach.
We started a short walk on the lava rocks following another
of Victor’s explanations on volcanos, lava, and volcanic eruptions.
I know he means well, but I think I know more about lava than one living
in the Midwest needs to know. The lava
looked fresh – Elsie and I were estimating that it came from a more recent
eruption – maybe in the last year or two – given the complete lack of life. We were surprised to learn that the eruption
had happened about 120 years earlier.
Given that the islands are a result of volcanic eruptions, it is
mindboggling to think how much time must pass to get such lush life in many of the other places we have visited.
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| Lotta Lava |
Walking on hot lava rocks mid-day at the equator does not seem like a smart thing to do. The only thing that would make it less smart would be to listen to Victor tell us that lava has healing powers and sometimes people need to become one with the earth. Somehow, he convinced all of us to lay on our backs on the lava rocks in complete silence for five minutes and become one with the earth. Or something like that. He didn’t tell us time was up for 10 minutes. My hunch is that Victor had a bet with the rest of the Archipel crew that he could get a boat load of tourists to willingly lay on hot lava rocks for 10 minutes… Truth be told, while hot, it was not unbearable. There was something about laying quietly, staring up at the pure blue sky, watching a single frigate bird glide through the air… maybe Victor was onto something and I was actually doing something good for myself.
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| Bunch of idiots laying on hot lava |
Following our lava meditation, we went to the beach where a few people did a final snorkel and I chose to sit in a shady spot and just enjoy the view.
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| Beach view |
Upon return to the ship, the Original 8 spent our last “happy hour” on the top deck exchanging pictures and contact info before having our last dinner and retiring to our rooms to pack. It is so hard to believe this is our last night.
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| Puffer Fish! |
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