Our first day tour was a 2 hour boat ride to Bartolome Island. Bartolome Island is one of the “youngest” islands in the Galapagos archipelago. The island is named after naturalist and life long friend of Charles Darwin, Sir Bartholomew Sullivan, who was a Lieutenant aboard the HMS Beagle. Along the three hour boat ride, we saw dolphins and manta rays leaping and doing flips from the water. We learned that they often did this to remove barnacles and small fish that attach themselves on their backs. We also observed red algae in the water. It is used widely in the world for many medicinal purposes ranging from helping HIV patients in the support of their immune system to curing cold sores and helping reduce levels of cholesterol and fat in the blood. The are one of the worlds only natural occurring anti-viral as well as immune enhancing agents. Too bad we just watched it float by as we chugged towards the island.
Once we got there, we took a hike to the top of a summit to view the island landscape, while our naturalist guide talked about how the island was formed through a series of violent volcanic eruptions. Old lava flows are forever preserved in the rocks. It is only 1.2 KM in total land mass and used to be inhabited by a species of giant rat (the size of small dogs) which was eradicated in 1976. From the top of the volcanic cone on the island you can see the famous, Pinnacle Rock, which is the most photographed in the islands.
After our hike, we got back on the boat and put on our snorkeling gear. They took us to a little beach directly under Pinnacle Rock and we snorkeled/swam with penguins and exotic fish. The penguins here are the only species that are found North of the equator and the experience was truly magical. Apparently, a shark spotting caused all the swimmers to evacuate the water, but we were so busy chasing the penguins that we didn’t notice…we were wondering why we were the only ones in the water when we were swimming back to shore.
Once we climbed back into the boat, we enjoyed a few cervezas while we headed back to Isla Santa Cruz and back to the town of Puerto Ayora.
Awesome guys! I love the pic of the ray flipping itself out of the water..so cool! When we were in the Galapagos and a shark was spotted in the water the guides were like...'get in, everyone in. Shark, Shark!' They were telling us to go in the water to see the sharks. It was a bit weird and totally unnatural to what we've been taught all our lives but it was amazing! We saw hammerheads, black and white tipped reef sharks. Keep on blogging. Cool to hear these stories :) Lauren
ReplyDelete