Pick up a Penguin

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Wow. Today we entered a different land. It was dark, bleak, desolate and barren yet strangely enticing. Today we visited the island of Santiago and were introduced to walking on Pahoehoe lava. It was amazing, very pretty with different shades and tighter coils which looked like rope (or giant marshmallow twists to me) and got tighter and tighter where the lava must have flowed faster. It was probably over 200 years old.

After a morning of exploring we headed to the island of Bartholme and cooled off with a snorkel and saw lots of fishes, coral, sea lions and some penguins! The penguins are sooooo cute. The smallest species I just wanted to take one home with me and could have sat watching them play in the water for hours. They swim so fast it is very impressive and I think they were one of my favourite sights of the trip :-).

In the evening we headed back to the island for a hike up to the top of the peak and an amazing view of the peninsula. The landscape from the top looked like we were standing on the moon. Lots of craters and Ah-ah lava, which is much smoother than the Pahoehoe lava. As it was so clear you could see some of the other islands and two volcanoes, called the Daphne's - major and minor. Off to Genovesa tomorrow for the birdlife.

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