It gets pretty hot during the day, so the plan was to do a dry landing (ie hiking shoes on in the Zodiacs) and hike up to the top. For non-hikers, they had another option to take a Zodiac around Part of the island instead of hiking.
They had a nice little fruit and pastry selection as well as coffee, tea etc in the lobby, which was our main meeting point for excursions. You will not go hungry on this ship, but we continued to be impressed at the healthy options.
With life jackets on (mandatory for all Zodiac trips) we were split into groups of 12 or 13 and we boarded the Zodiac for the short trip to the Island.
There was a landing platform and walkway built to the top of this island (380 steps up). Our naturalist was Fernando, who walked up the boardwalk and steps in bare feet, periodically stopping as he tapped into the wealth of information in his big brain. The island looked more like it belonged on Mars than on planet earth - volcanic sand and rock, very few plants or animals and the occasional clump of cactus. The Galapagos islands are, for the most part, very dry - it almost never rains, and when it does rain, the water is absorbed almost right away into the porous, soft volcanic rock.
The group spread out a bit on each section as the steps were harder on some of the older guests. For the four of us, it was nice hiking up steps and not being completely out of breath like we were just a few days ago in the higher mountains of Quito and Otavalo.
Fernando was super passionate and very well versed in every aspect of geology, flora and fauna, climate, geological history and more... it was crazy. This island had a peculiar pinnacle feature that was actually used as target practice for US navy bombers who had a temporary base here in World War II on the nearby island of San Sébastien.
As we got to the top of the island , it got really windy (a woman and a teenage girl both had their hats blown off... luckily Fernando saved them!). The views from the top were spectacular and we could see the beautiful sandy beach where we would later be snorkeling from.
We got back to the ship and dumped our stuff and heard a nice "good morning everyone" call over the PA from Alexa with a reminder that breakfast would be served soon. Was it really only 815am?
Another great meal. We sat with Kim and Alex on the beautiful deck at the stern of the 4th level of the ship. The service was amazing... very friendly staff and more than willing to help with anything.
Our first snorkeling experience was to start at 9:15. In the marina, near the back zodiac entrance of the ship, everyone had a hanger by room number with mesh bags containing you gear and wetsuit. As Beth and I were getting on our wetsuits, I heard Abe with a raised, New Yorker accent "has anyone seen my mask? It's gone... it's GONE!... someone's taken my mask...JOYCE?? Where's my mask? I need another mask... is there a staff guy here? I need another mask? Jeez!!". I didn't know if I should laugh or cry! As I was walking to the lobby from the marina and checking a photo I had on my phone, Abe asked me, in quick rapid fire, "is that the ship's Wifi? Or your WiFi? How are you getting WiFi? Is that your OWN??". I told him I wasn't on WiFi.... lol.
Incidentally... each room gets a total of 7 hours of WiFi for the entire cruise (though you could buy more). Most of us were happy not to use any WiFi!!
The Zodiacs took us right to the sandy beach (after a short detour to look at a couple of cute little penguins) we had observed from the peak of the island on our hike. Because we were heading towards an El Nino, apparently the water was unusually warm (around 75 degrees as opposed to the usual 65 degrees).
We dumped our packs and towels on the beach and dipped into the water to get our fins and mask on. Quickly, we were snorkeling with tons of fish and spotting large starfish and urchins with very thick spines tucked into niches in the reef-like lava rocks.
Before long, we spotted our first penguin shooting through the water beneath us. Then it was sea lions - swimming right in front of our faces then diving with an amused looking expression
Soon, a six foot long muscular white tipped reef shark was swimming directly below us. I looked over at my snorkeling buddy, and she looked nervous but unafraid. Fernando poked his head out and declared "guys, this shark is totally harmless for us... no need to worry". All good.
The sea lions continued to play, swimming near us, then flipping in circles and blowing bubbles. They really seemed to want to play.
We passed a large school of black striped 8" long fish... they hung draped over the lava rock bottom like a giant floating fish net.... there must have been tens of thousands of them.
Every once in while we would hear someone yelling and we'd poke our heads up "JOYCE! JOYCE!! WHERE THE HELL IS SHE??... JOYCE!!!"... it was Abe and he'd lost track of his buddy - his wife of 41 years, Joyce.
Back aboard the Islander II, and we'd somehow built an appetite right in time for a delicious lunch!
We had some time to chill after lunch, though I left the chill zone early to attend a photography lecture put on by Jose. His presentation was really good for an amateur like me - especially his examples of utilizing different light and his advice on composition... it's not all about he close ups! :-)
The boat had moved back to Santa Cruz Island near Cerro Dragon. The plan was to do another hike in the afternoon to spot marine and land iguanas.
This section of the island was a little more lush than the morning hike at Bartolomé Island, and it wasn't long before we spotted a bunch of wildlife.
This land iguanas are really different than the marine... light in colour, generally bigger/heavier with fat tails for balance, they mostly hung out in the low scrub brush. The marine iguanas had thin tails they used to propel them underwater. Their skin was dark and when on land they sat out in the sun, gaining energy in the form of heat before they could go back swimming.
In the evening Socrates gave an amazing talk on Darwin. This first part focused on his upbringing and what led him to come to South America. It was so interesting learning about how inter-connected the aristocracy and intelligentsia of Europe was (and how much of a "small world" it really was). Socrates was so passionate and an amazing speaker. What a show! He also did the daily briefing for tomorrow's activities.
What felt like our 6th meal of day (however, we never felt stuffed or over fed!), was another delicious dinner. We didn't last too long after dinner - these 5:45am days meant early to bed for all!
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