Day 55 - Bartolome - Chinese Hat

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Another night-time navigation had us at the small island of Bartolome and it was a beautiful sight to wake-up to as from this spot we could also see the larger island, Santiago and the other small island nearby called Chinese Hat because of its shape, which we would also visit in the afternoon.

Originally, the day was going to start with a dry-landing onto the island but Fabian noticed a big group of tourists already on the island so switched the activities around and we started with a zodiac boat ride around the island to try and spot penguins. We didn’t see any penguins but we did see pelicans and crabs. We then did the landing and we walked along a boarded walk which turned into 370 steps as we climbed to the top of the island which rewarded us with a fantastic view of the two bays opposite each other and we could see Nemo I anchored in one of them.

We returned to Nemo I for the usual drink and snack before the next snorkeling session. This was in calmer waters so I decided to give it another go but again I ran into difficulties. I’ve been fighting off a slight cold and cough for the last few days and I think this affected my ability to use the snorkel as I could not get enough air and ended up swimming to a rock to sit on while I caught my breath back. At this point I decided it wasn’t going to work for me so I swam back to the zodiac. Luckily, this time because the water was calm, I didn’t get sea-sick at all.

After lunch we had a wet-landing onto nearby Chinese Hat. Here we saw lots of sea lions, crabs and another different type of landscape.

After Chinese Hat there was a long 6 hour navigation to Santa Cruz which was quite challenging as it was a very bumpy ride. Daisy had her pressure point bands, travel calm tablets as well as another tablet from Dr Rob. She just sat still and concentrated on the horizon until the sun set. Then someone pointed out a light she could use. Dinner was served at the usual time of 19:00 but Daisy didn’t touch it so she could concentrate on the light. When we finally reached Santa Cruz, the crew brought her dinner back out which was very thoughtful.

After arriving, the boat was so calm we all stayed up longer than usual chatting. There was also Bailey’s handed around to say farewell to those leaving tomorrow.

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