Bartolomé

Thursday, 30 August 2018
Galapagos Day 6

Bartolomé is the most photographed island in the Galapagos - for good reason. The island is composed of two volcanic tuff cones, separated by a small isthmus with white beaches on both sides and green vegetation in between.

We had a morning hike up to the top of the tallest cone, and the view was breathtaking in more than one sense of the word!

An early morning view of Bartolomé from our ship. Here you can clearly see the low beach between the two ends of the island. Our landing site is on the far left, and a boardwalk trail with about 375 steps leads to the summit.

The first section of the boardwalk near the landing site. Our ship is anchored offshore.

A steeper section of the boardwalk showing a small portion of the steps.

The volcanic landscape was fascinating and I really liked the colors in the cinder rocks.

Lava cactus - the third type of cactus in the Galapagos.

The iconic view from Bartolomé.

Another view from the summit. I was fascinated by the spear-head shaped rock near the middle of the photo.

Colorful vegetation near the beach.

Our afternoon destination, Sombrero Chino ("Chinese Hat"), could be seen in the distance.

There's an underwater crater near the landing site. It's particularly visible at low tide.

Another view of the crater as we descended.

A brown pelican near the landing site.