Santa Cruz + Bartolome

Weather: Perfect and Sunny

Yesterday (Friday April 12th) Sara and I didn't have class. We just had our essay due at 6pm so we headed to Fresco around 11:15am to order some brunch while we waited for Nicola to get out of class. We all headed to the pier for our boat to Santa Cruz. We thought it was at 2 but it turned out to be at 3 so we had time to just relax and hang out. I'd rather it be that way than the other way around. We got on our boat and made it to Santa Cruz with no problems. We got settled at Descanso del Petrel Hostel and then headed out for dinner at Lemon & Coffee which has the best veggie pizza I’ve tasted since being abroad. We got gelato after from the ice cream place right next to the hostel and walked to the pier for a bit. We had to be up for 6am today so we headed back to the hostel to shower and head to bed.

Saturday April 13th (today)
5:30am came way to fast. Once we got ourselves out of bed, we were soon waiting for the bus to come get us to bring us to the other port on the other side of the island at 6am. When we got on the bus, Juan (who was a chaperone on our IES island hopping trip) was there with 5 students that are in the Quito program with IES. It's such a small world, it was good catching up with him. He has gone to Bartolome before and was so excited to return so that made me even more excited than I already was. We got on board the Galápagos Shark II and it was the nicest boat I’ve been on since being here. It was considered a yacht here but by American standards it wouldn't. The crew served us a bomb breakfast which we were not expecting, so it was a nice surprise. It was scrambled eggs with veggies mixed in, some bread and butter, cheese, and cantaloupe. We got to talk with other passengers over breakfast; there was a couple from Scotland, a woman from the UK that now lives in Australia, a girl a bit older than us that was traveling solo from Holland, Juan and the five students from Quito, and a few people from Italy. It amazes me every time talking to people from all over the world. It inspires to keep traveling and seeing new places, I want to understand as many different cultures as possible.

After breakfast, we settled in and Nicola, Sara, and I rode on the bow of the boat. It was really relaxing because the ride to Bartolome was more of cruise which took two hours. If they went fast we could've made it there in probably 45 minutes. The boat went past Daphne Island so we were able to birdwatch a bit. I think over Spring break when we got to circle the whole island there were more birds present. It was still cool to see the island again and watch all the Nazca boobies flying about and nesting. As we got closer to Bartolome we saw dolphins jumping as well as fish that appeared to be tuna. We were fortunate enough to see an entire pod of dolphins on our way back to Santa Cruz as well. It's truly majestic and never gets old. Eventually we arrived in Bartolome Bay and the skiff took us all to shore where we began an hour and half hike to the top of Bartolome. The national park put in a wooden plank boardwalk as the trail in order to protect the ash/sand that makes up the island. We stopped frequently to talk about what we were seeing which was nice since we were in direct sunlight and very hot. I liked the fact that we were able to stop and soak in the sights because it was gorgeous as soon as we arrived on the boat, but the higher we got the more beautiful the views.

Along the tour we ran into the "sugar daddy" from a couple weekends back that kept buying everyone drinks at Baquero. He is a guide and goes back and forth between Santa Cruz and San Cristobal. We saw him the last time we were on Santa Cruz too for Spring break. Santa Cruz has 28,000 people on it and he is who we run into out of all people. We also ran into our guide Jenny we had on our trip with IES. We're really feeling like locals here because we are running into people we know on different islands...that's when you know we've been here a bit. The other night Nicola and I were running and we saw her host brother, and a couple of land-sharks we know from around the island.

Anyways, we took pictures when we reached the top and took in the views. We could see the crater of the volcano that formed Bartolome under water below. It used to be above water according to the guide

but it sunk over the years. The entire island is extremely fragile since it's made pretty much of just ash, lava, and sand. We got great views of Pinnacle Rock as well which is apparently man made! Our guide said that the Navy was based here during WWII to provide protection for the Panama Canal if needed. They weren't needed so they decided to drop 4 bombs around Bartolome and Santiago. If you go to the beach below you can see the shells of the bombs still. They have since cleaned up the hazardous materials but this whole story blew my mind. It was a really great informative tour and that is attributed to our guide. He had amazing English, and he was able to answer everyone's questions backing them up with science. We hiked back down and the skiff came to pick us up and took us on a small boat ride along the shore to look for penguins. We ended up seeing one penguin cleaning himself on the rocks. Even though I saw a lot in Isabela, it made my day to see another one in Bartolome. After we observed the penguin for a bit we headed over towards

Pinnacle Rock where there were some boobies nesting in the crevices of the rock. We headed back to the boat and got ready to snorkel!

We snorkeled in a bay along Santiago Island which is right next to Bartolome (Santiago is the bigger island with lots of mountains right in back of Bartolome in all of the pictures). Some people saw a white tip shark, but Nicola, Sara, and I missed that one. We saw some fish and a blue heron which was hanging out on the beach where the skiff came to pick us up. I didn't see anything too exciting under the water, but we got great views of Bartolome from the beach as well so that was cool. It was funny seeing how excited everyone was who saw the shark. It's become the normal for us which is crazy!! The tourists were like aww that's too bad you guys didn't see it, but they didn't know is that we've seen them at least 3x before. The water was really warm so we were lucky we got to see the penguin. The water is a lot colder in Isabela due to the Humboldt current so it makes sense as to why they're there. When we were back on board from snorkeling, it was lunchtime. It was rice and corn mixed together with a sauce on top, a salad, veggies, and a piece of fish with an amazing tasting sauce on it. It was by far the best fish I have had since being in the islands, and I've had a lot of fish...The veggies were fresh and it was just great. They topped it off with a chocolate cake with raspberry sauce and boy oh boy did we feel like we were living in luxury. Shortly after lunch we made the two hour trip back to Santa Cruz nice and slow. We all ended up passing out on the way back which was much needed as it was a long day. We got back into port around 5:30pm and headed to hostel for showers before dinner.

Diana was in Santa Cruz for a doctor appointment because she had a bad ear infection that she needed cleared before starting her next class. She joined us for dinner at an Italian place located at the end of the street where the los kioskos are located. We shared a pizza which was pretty good although it marked my third night of pizza so I don't think I can take much more from here on out. Diana headed to bed after dinner cause she was going diving tomorrow, but we got gelato and headed to a bar so Sara and Nicola could get a drink. We hung out and talked til about 11:30pm and headed back to the hostel and knocked out. It was such a good day and a much needed break from the routine weekends of San Cristobal. I'd go as far to say this was my favorite tour I have done in the islands. Isabela tours come in close as my favorite landscape would be Los Tuneles on Isabela.