16/17th May 15 - Galapagos Islands

After the flight to Baltra, we were taken aboard the Silver Galapagos by zodiac in the middle of a thunderstorm! The ship is excellent. Very friendly and great (sea)food..

Sunday was a packed day with a hike to Bartolome's Summit, our first taste of snorkeling and a zodiac tour of the coastline. 

Hike to Bartolome's Summit

We landed by zodiac in Sullivan's Bay

First thing was to step over the sleeping sea lion who just didn't take a blind bit of notice of us.

Pelican on the jetty

The rocks were covered in brightly coloured crabs. This one is called Sally Lightfoot.

Then we made our way up to the summit. You can see the Silver Galapagos in the bay.

This is a volcanic island and the landscape was lava with little vegetation. Good place for a Lava Lizard I guess.

338 steps later we were atop Bartolome's Summit and its much photographed view of Pinnacle Rock. You can see all the extinct volcanoes. A very lunar-like landscape

A Galapagos Hawk atop the summit

After returning to the ship we had our first snorkeling from the Pinnacle beach. It was superb with many brightly coloured fish and the occasional shark, ray and penguin for company. A magical experience.

Getting ready to snorkel around Pinnacle Rock

Very becoming outfit!

Zodiac Tour at Caleta Bucanero, Santiago Island

Blue-footed Booby

Brown Noddy

A Nazca Booby feeding its young.

Praying Monk Rock from the zodiac