Galapagos - Day 9: San Salvador & Bartholomew

Alas, what seemed like a long vacation is now coming to an end. Once again, I feel like I should retire as soon as possible so I don't have these "ugh, we have to go back to work" feelings. Today was a relatively low-key day, we are back on the San Salvador (also known as Santiago or James) Island, the adopted island of Lindblad Expeditions. If you recall from the earlier post, this is the island that used to be overrun by 60,000-80,000 goats but is now down to zero goats and the iguanas have returned. 

Breakfast was scheduled for 7am again, with the first excursion going out at 8. Today really wasn't about wildlife anymore (maybe they acknowledge that we've hit all the big ones now and would not be as adequately excited about what we would be seeing); instead it's about landscapes. Off to the zodiacs again!

Okay I guess we can fit in a penguin sighting too - can't have a completely animal-free day!

The morning hike was over a lava flow landscape from an eruption about 120 years ago. Most of the lava here is of the “pahoehoe” kind -- which is rounded corners rope-y lava, as opposed to the sharp edges brittle “aa” lava. 

Check out all of those different lava patterns!

It was kind of cool seeing how clean these cracks in the lava are from when they cooled down -- you can see exactly how one side fits perfectly into the other. 

The pictures really don't do it justice -- in a way, it reminded me of the death valley landscape, though obviously this was a lava field instead of sand dunes. 

Obligatory cheeky shot of me falling into the lava crack.

Yeye got into the spirit as well -- here's him being chased by the lava:

I actually was curious how fast this lava would have moved and our guide (Felipe) told us it was like a thick ketchup or spaghetti sauce - so we could in fact probably run away from it. Good to know! Quick note on Felipe -- his grandfather, Rolf Wittmer, was the first registered birth in the archipelago (born in a literal cave). 

The entire island was just very other-worldly. 

Some of the shots of where the lava flow stopped reminded me of the retreating glaciers we saw in Alaska, instead of slowly melting ice, we had slowly cooling lava "tongues" through the forests/valleys. 

After lunch, the boat repositioned to Bartolome, and there was another snorkeling opportunity from the beach there. I decided to pass in lieu of packing -- I think I made a wise choice as Yeye (who braved the waters once again) said that the water was only 62 degrees!! It was very clear so great visibility but man, I would NOT have lasted long in that temperature. I did venture out for the last sunset hike though -- there was a sea lion blocking the stairs at the landing again - he just wanted to make sure we could say every excursion had SOME wildlife. 

But biggest news is that Baba was finally feeling better enough to join us!

Baba may not have realized he signed up for the ONLY true "hike" of the entire trip. Normally all of the "long" hikes or "fitness" hikes are still pretty tame, but this time it was a very uphill climb to the island summer -- about 350 feet up.  

The landscape here was similar to what I've seen in moon shots. Because of the drought conditions, few plants survive here and as a result no animals come either. Here's one of maybe two or three cactus plants I saw during our entire excursion here.

I think this is one of the classic landscape shots of the Galapagos islands though. 

Proof that Baba made it to the top! Sadly now that Baba had largely recovered (it seemed to improve pretty rapidly after he took the antibiotics), Nainai was rapidly descending into her own sickness cycle, so she wasn't able to join us on the excursions today. 

That leaning cone looks odd right? Turns out it was formed by a target practice exercise by the US military. Apparently during WWII, Ecuador agreed to let the US establish a military site here and released some bombs/artillery on the uninhabited islands -- one bomb hit what used to be a mound and half of it broke off and fell into the ocean, this leaning tower is the half that was left standing. 

And with that last sunset, we headed back to the ship for the farewell bbq and final bits of packing. Tomorrow, we say goodbye to the Galapagos Islands and fly back to Quito!