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Published: July 30th 2005
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Group Shot
Helen, Cece, Ryan, Ana, Caroline, Mike, Carlos, Alison, Kate, Audrey, and Esther "Hello! Everybody ready?! It´s George, your guide. It´s time to go to Bartolomé! The bus is waiting!" boomed a man with an Ecuadorian accent. It was only 4:45 am. It was still dark out. We hadn´t even heard any roosters yet (they usually start crowing way too early in the morning). Though, our alarm had just gone off. No, we were not ready yet. We had been told that the bus would would pick us up at our hotel at 5:00 am. We had packed up our stuff the night before. All we had to do was get dressed, grab our daybag and head downstairs.
Most of our group arrived downstairs at the bus at the same time. Except Carlos. Had anyone woken up him yet? How could he not have heard George? Wow, he´s a sound sleeper! So it was time time to check on the Bolivian. Carlos woke up, got dressed, and headed down to the bus in two minutes tops. He had on his swim trunks and a tee and was carrying his snorkel gear. However, when Audrey saw him, she said, "Carlos, where´s your camera?" The bus had already started driving down the road. Carlos shrugged,
"Ni modo, pues " and settled in for a nap.
He had plenty of time for sleep during the hour-long bus ride to Ithabaca Channel and the 3+ hour boat road to Bartolomé (the boat had bunks). It was a pretty smooth ride out to the island. We had breakfast aboard the ship. Ryan spent much of the ride sitting near the bow of the ship watching the birds. When we arrived at Bartolomé, George or Jorge, informed us that we´d be seeing "one of the more beautiful panoramics on the Galápagos".
Bartolomé Island is much visited for the scenery. It is a low-lying volcanic island with a hill rising up near the center. From the top, one can appreciate 360 degree views of the surrounding areas. The landscape on the island is often described as a "lunar landscape" because of the strangeness of the rock formations. Also, very little grows or lives on the island. Apart from some cactus, crabs, and lava lizards near the shore, there was one low silvery plant that had adapted to life on the island. Unfortunately, we learned little else about the island from Jorge. He spoke barely intelligible Spanglish and
only occasionally resorted to Spanish. Boy, did we wish we had either Eddy or Cheche as our guide.
After finishing the trail on Bartolomé, it was time to head back to the boat to transfer to a beach on the other side of the island. From here, a short hike over a sand dune lead to an area where white-tipped sharks swam close to shore. Jorge assured, "sharks vegetarian", meaning there is no record of any shark attacks in the Galápagos. We were excited to have our first shark sightings of the trip.
Then we headed back to the beach for some snorkeling. The sand was scorching, so we quickly got into the water. Some people in our group swam with the Galápagos penguin! We only saw fish, coral, anemones, sea urchins, sea stars, and got to swim with sea lions. We did, however, see the Galápagos penguin on the rocky shore of the island. Pretty soon it was time to head back to town. Jorge did not inspire confidence when he identified a bird as a "Hawaiian petrel". We could not find it in our fieldguide even tough it shows all the bird species ever recorded in
Mike and Caroline
Later, we went to see the sharks at the beach on the left and we went snorkeling around the pinacle to the right. the archipelago. We asked Jorge for the Spanish name of the bird (English, Spanish, and Latin names are given in our fieldguide). Jorge then changed his mind and called the bird simply a "petrel".
We got back to town after dark, showered, and headed out to dinner. On the way back, we ran into Fifi (our local friend). He invited us all out to go dancing that evening. He said that we should go out at least once while we were in the islands so we could get to know more of the locals. Also, said this was our last chance since nothing would be going on the next night (Sunday). We agreed to meet him around 11pm. He´d come by the hotel to pick us up. We went to take a nap back in the hotel room.
Shortly after 11pm, we heard Fifi knocking on Carlos´door a few doors down. We stumbled out of bed groggily and headed out. Fifi explained that there was a fiesta going on in the main square. We checked it out. There were a few tables set up, a beer stand, and some entertainment. We sat and chatted for a while watching
little kids and a few drunken older people dancing along to the music. Then we headed back to the hotel to see if anyone else wanted to out dancing. By this time, Ryan had had enough excitement for the night and went back to sleep. Everyone else in the group was sleeping, so Ana, Carlos, and Fifi headed out. They didn´t get back to 2:45 am. Good thing we weren´t scheduled for another 5am start the next day!
WILDLIFE SIGHTINGS: Elliot's storm petrel, Audobon's shearwater, Wedge-rumped storm petrel, Egret, Brown pelican, Galapagos penguin, Frigatebirds, Blue-footed boobies, Lava heron, Darwin's finches, Black Sea turtle, Marine iguana (mertensi subspecies), Lava lizards, Sea lions, White-tipped shark, Sally Lighfoot crabs, Anemones, Coral, Sea urchins, Seastars, Fish, Hawaiian storm petrel (?)
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