Bartolome and Cerro Dragón

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I'm finally going to finish my Galapagos blog after being home for 3 weeks... Here goes!

This morning was our most intense hike. Which isn't really saying much. We walked up to a point about 115 meters high from which we could see the rest of the island (Bartolome) and some of the other islands. Beaches, gorgeous water, crazy rock formations... It is the most photographed view in the Galapagos. We then went snorkeling from the beach by Pinnacle Rock and saw our first penguins. We even went swimming with one that dove in right in front of us! There were lots of fish, sea stars, and even an octopus! Then we went in the dinghies around the coast to find more penguins.

In the afternoon we went to Cerro Dragón on the island of Santa Cruz. We mostly saw land iguanas. We even saw a baby one (about the size of a lava lizard) which is supposedly really rare to see! Also marine iguanas, a Galapagos mockingbird, cool cactus, and tons of mosquitoes when we got back to the beach area.

In the evening we were in Puerto Ayora so some of us got off the boat to go into town for a little bit. While we were sailing there were a couple frigates circling the boat and a couple times they flew really close to us! They often fly around boats as long as the boats are in sight of land. That's how they got their names, from the frigate sails.

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