Bartholome Island was one of the last two islands we visited before joining the real world. As a reminder of this, we were joined in the bay by about five other boats, one a 100 passenger cruise ship that, the second time we were there, only had 27 passengers on board.
Bartholome had some lovely landscape and very different to any we’d seen or walked on previously.
We had a short hike over a boardwalk and up steps that led up us the hillside that was strewn with volcanic rock that had been thrown out by eruptions. Some of the rocks looked huge but were very light.
Unfortunately I picked a huge real rock to hoist up for a photo and nearly put my back out (hence no photo). The view from the top was beautiful and, in the distance, was one of Isabelas volcanoes and 140 square km of fresh lava (the flat bit) from a recent eruption that had made land out of what was once sea.
This is the view from the top of the brief climb and we snorkelled around the pinnacle rock that you can see in the below.
From the top we could see a submarine volcano and the water was so clear that we could also see sea lions and rays swimming in the water near the shore line.
I think these are called splatter cones but to me they looked like gigantic pimples that had erupted from the earth (I can see Ben cringing from here at this description!).
It was so hot and we welcomed the opportunity to snorkel after the climb. This was the second time Euan and I had snorkelled this area and while we didn’t see any sharks (there were loads last week), 100’s of starfish had moved in and were sitting motionless on the seabed. We were dragged out of the water into the pangas after Ben saw a particularly large shark (too big to be a reef shark) clearly checking everyone out. I don’t know how big it was but it left Ben freaked and we picked up James (who was oblivious and happily swimming back to the boat) on the way.
Baltra Island, where the airport is, was our last stop and even then there was some animal action. This is where we’d seen the Galapagos sharks circling the boat the week before and this time there were sea lions around, seemingly waiting for boats on the benches.
This particular one just mozied on through the people
.jpg)
before making himself comfortable on the benches in amongst the other sea lions who grumbled and groaned in protest at having to accommodate yet another one on the bench (meanwhile we were standing!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj17NljfM-o
We were really sad to say goodbye to everyone but thankfully it was quite rushed and we had no option but to give quick hugs before jumping on a bus to the ferry that would take us to Santa Cruz Island. We weren’t alone as Woody, Val, Elizabeth and Stephen were staying on Santa Cruz for a while as well and they kindly shared their taxi pick-ups, giving us a lift the 42km from the ferry back to Puerto Ayora, back to where we’d started from.
Bartholome had some lovely landscape and very different to any we’d seen or walked on previously.
We had a short hike over a boardwalk and up steps that led up us the hillside that was strewn with volcanic rock that had been thrown out by eruptions. Some of the rocks looked huge but were very light.
Unfortunately I picked a huge real rock to hoist up for a photo and nearly put my back out (hence no photo). The view from the top was beautiful and, in the distance, was one of Isabelas volcanoes and 140 square km of fresh lava (the flat bit) from a recent eruption that had made land out of what was once sea.
This is the view from the top of the brief climb and we snorkelled around the pinnacle rock that you can see in the below.
From the top we could see a submarine volcano and the water was so clear that we could also see sea lions and rays swimming in the water near the shore line.
I think these are called splatter cones but to me they looked like gigantic pimples that had erupted from the earth (I can see Ben cringing from here at this description!).
It was so hot and we welcomed the opportunity to snorkel after the climb. This was the second time Euan and I had snorkelled this area and while we didn’t see any sharks (there were loads last week), 100’s of starfish had moved in and were sitting motionless on the seabed. We were dragged out of the water into the pangas after Ben saw a particularly large shark (too big to be a reef shark) clearly checking everyone out. I don’t know how big it was but it left Ben freaked and we picked up James (who was oblivious and happily swimming back to the boat) on the way.
Baltra Island, where the airport is, was our last stop and even then there was some animal action. This is where we’d seen the Galapagos sharks circling the boat the week before and this time there were sea lions around, seemingly waiting for boats on the benches.
This particular one just mozied on through the people
.jpg)
before making himself comfortable on the benches in amongst the other sea lions who grumbled and groaned in protest at having to accommodate yet another one on the bench (meanwhile we were standing!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj17NljfM-o
We were really sad to say goodbye to everyone but thankfully it was quite rushed and we had no option but to give quick hugs before jumping on a bus to the ferry that would take us to Santa Cruz Island. We weren’t alone as Woody, Val, Elizabeth and Stephen were staying on Santa Cruz for a while as well and they kindly shared their taxi pick-ups, giving us a lift the 42km from the ferry back to Puerto Ayora, back to where we’d started from.
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