We woke up early in the morning to go on a pre-breakfast hike onto the summit of Bartholomew Island. While on the hike, we explored all the volcanic features of this young island and the process of primary successions all species are going through to stablish their prints here and fulfill their niches within the ecosystem.
Once on top of the summit of Batholomew, one can enjoy one of the most majestic views of the Galapagos where the landscape includes and blue water of North and South beach of Bartholomew and some bright green mangroves in between, as well as the very iconic pinnacle rock, standing out from the ocean. What a breath-taking way to start the day!
After the hike, we returned to breakfast. We soon got suited up to go snorkeling along the coast of Batholomew; while snorkeling we encountered a large variety of fish, some Galapagos sea lions, cushion sea stars constellating the bottom of the ocean.
After lunch, we repositioned towards Chinese Hat. A satellite islet of Santiago Island, which holds a small ecosystem established on it. We had the opportunity to snorkel along the coast of Chinese hat and encounter a large variety of tropical fish, as well as a few white tip reef sharks and a couple of Galapagos penguins swimming along the coast.
We finished our day with some barbeque on the top deck. What an incredible exploration day we had!
