After spending our first night in the Galapagos, the National Geographic Islander sailed to the center to the archipelago to visit two of the most beautiful islands, Rabida and Bartolome.
Early in the morning we headed to Bartolomé with the mission to get to the top of the island and observe the eroded volcanoes and the famous Pinnacle Rock. With the first beams of sun we began to ascend, observing a surrealistic landscape whose similarity with Mars was incredible. One of the first attractions that caught the attention of our guests was a juvenile Galapagos hawk unmoving on a rock close to us. It was observing the rocks as it looked for a reptile or other kind of food. The sun was rising, increasing the heat, but it was not an impediment to continue to the summit of the island – we finally made it. The view from the top was spectacular with a background of Pinnacle Rock, hundreds of eroded remains of tuff cones and a blue sky.
After breakfast we came back to the island to snorkel from the golden beach at the southern part of the island. It was high tide and water was very clear, therefore we observed a great amount of colorful fish such as king angel fish, razor surgeon fish and white tipped reef sharks. But probably the best attraction was a group of penguins drying their wings on the foot of the Pinnacle Rock. It was photographed a lot by our guests!
In the afternoon, after a short navigation, we arrived to Rabida Island. In the distance the red color of the beach and cliffs contrasted with the green vegetation and the blue sky. Our guests had the chance to enjoy different activities such as kayaking, snorkeling and landing on the beach to observe the flora and fauna of the island. I was with the first group who headed to the beach with the kayakers to observe sea life close to the seashore. With crystalline water and very soft wind we paddled along the red rocks observing blue footed boobies, pelicans nesting on trees, sea turtles, sea lions and Galapagos penguins on the rocks.
After kayaking, we landed on the red beach and walked along the shoreline to discover a great number of baby sea lions with their moms feeding them, while in the water more pelicans and boobies were in a feeding frenzy. They tried to catch some salemas or mullets while some brown noddy terns tried to steal some food. We saw many of them standing on the heads of the pelicans. Just before sunset, we headed back to the National Geographic Islander with the best memories of this beautiful day in this last refuge of incredible creatures.
