November 9-16, 2014: A Tour of the Celebrity Xpedition
	November 11, 2014: Isabela Island
	Return to the Index for Our Galapagos Adventure

Today, we will come back around to the northeast shore of Santiago Island to walk across some relatively new lava flows. In the afternoon, we will go a very short distance east to Bartolome Island, where we will hike to the island's summit to take in the spectacular views. After that, Fred and I will try our hand at snorkeling again.

Morning on the Celebrity Xpedition

Today, we'll be getting up fairly early to leave the ship at 830AM to take one of the Zodiacs in to Sullivan Bay on Santiago Island. So there wasn't much time or opportunity to do much except get our breakfast and get ready to leave the ship.

Fred with Bartolome Island in the Background

All we did as far as pictures were concerned was to take a few as we were coming in to our anchor spot in Sullivan Bay. We could see both of our destinations from the ship.

Our afternoon destination would be Bartolome Island, which we could see a mile or so away across the water. With his zoom and my camera, Fred and I took a few pictures from this distance (pictures we wouldn't be able to get once we were on the island). You can see the beginning of the boardwalk we will be on as well as the little lighthouse on top. Click on the thumbnail images below to see some of these pictures:

Also, looking out ahead of the ship across the water, we could see the rocky lava coast where the Zodiac would be taking us this morning.

Galapagos Shore Excursion (5):
          Lava Walk on Santiago Island at Sullivan Bay

Last night, the four of us selected the long lava walk for this morning, and we were ready at the stern about 0815. Just before the Zodiacs were ready to start loading, Greg started feeling sick, and he decided to forgo the walk and go back to his stateroom. We found out when we returned that he had eaten something that hadn't agreed with him, but he was fine later in the day.

The daily bulletin described this excursion thusly:

"Sullivan Bay is nothing short of a geologic wonderland. Located on the southeast shore of Santiago Island, the area is covered by the twists and turns of ropey Pahoehoe lava flows. Iridescent swirls of hardened lava, collapse craters, old lava tubes, and Hornitos decorate this relatively modern volcanic landscape. We“ll make it a morning hike to minimize the heat while walking across fields of black lava. Duration: About 2 hours"

We boarded a Zodiac right at 0830 and ten minutes later we had landed on the shore of the lava flow that we would be exploring. As we headed off, we could look back out to sea and the Xpedition. There were a lot of other boats, too; this is a popular place (although many of the folks on those other boats anchored offshore might have either been snorkeling or on Bartolome Island nearby).

Our Lava Walk on Santiago

Our walk across the lava flows was extremely interesting, but I must admit that there were very few landmarks I could use to divide up the trip and thus the pictures. Fred, Yoost and I, however, did take our own pictures of different aspects of the lava and the surrounding mountains, so I think that we will just divide up the pictures by subject- e.g., types of lava, lava formations, new flows, plant life, and so on.

We will look at our pictures in a minute, but first let me use some of them to illustrate some general information about what we'll be seeing.

Volcanism in the Galapagos

Volcanoes, of course, can occur almost anywhere. Whenever the pressure of molten magma underneath the earth's crust finds an outlet, a volcano can occur. Some, like Mt. Etna, have existed throughout man's history and some, like that same mountain, have erupted periodically. Other volcanoes are new; not many years agofor as long as anyone can remember. Others are like Paricutin, a volcano that began in a Mexican cornfield in 1943, built itself into a thousand-foot cone inside of a year and continued erupting off and on for eight more years, finally becoming quiet in 1953 and leaving a 1400-foot cone covering four square miles. This volcano is part of the "Ring of Fire", that roughly circular ring of volcanoes that surrounds the Pacific Ocean.

A Volcano Cone on Santiago

Mid-ocean islands like Hawaii and the Galapagos are also volcanic, but formed in a different way. In these cases, the initial island is formed when an undersea volcano builds a mountain that finally rises so high that it breaks above the surface of the ocean. Subsequent eruptions continue to build this island higher and larger; the visible island is just the very peak of a much, much larger mountain with its base on the ocean floor.

The oldest Galapagos island was formed in this way. But, unlike most volcanoes on land, the fissure or weak space in the crust ("hotspot") through which the magma poured was at the boundary between tectonic plates, and when they moved, the fissure moved. So, the next time there was an eruption, the process began again and a new island was formed. The older islands, no longer being built up, began to erode and weather away. In the Galapagos, the oldest islands in the east have all but disappeared. The hotspot has moved steadily west, and is now fueling the growth of the newest island, Fernandina.

(The same is true in Hawaii, where the oldest islands are at the northern end of the chain while the newest and still volcanically active, The Big Island of Hawaii, is at the southern end of the chain.)

Galapagos lava is formed from basalt, the most basic of all types of lava. Basalt has a very different chemical composition from the lavas that erupt from continental volcanoes, and is much more fluid. Consequently, as the lava flows build up to produce a volcanic cone, the island cones have a much shallower slope than those on the mainland. These shallow-sloped volcanoes are called shield volcanoes and in the Galapagos, they are often compared to over-turned soup bowls. Such shield volcanoes can clearly be seen in the younger western islands of Isabela and Fernandina. To the east, the volcanoes are lower and more eroded.

The Remains of Tortuga Island

Many volcanoes are topped by a caldera, a large circular depression derived from the original crater (sometimes this is subsequently filled in by new lava). During an eruption, the crater is fed from a magma chamber, but as activity dies down, the magma withdraws, leaving a large, open cavity. The ceiling periodically collapses, lowering the crater floor and widening the diameter. There was a major caldera collapse on Fernandina in June, 1968, when the floor dropped 1000 feet. Eventually, these calderas fill with water from the sea (like Darwin Lake yesterday) and after still more time, all that is left of the island may be a broken ring.

Although we did not visit it, the remains of Tortuga Island, at the eastern end of the Galapagos Island group, is an excellent example. All that is left of the once solid island are the highest portions of the rim of the caldera of the volcano that formed it. Eventually, as the island sinks, even this ring of stone cliffs will disappear.

The Lava Flow We Traversed

Today, we will be walking on a lava flow that resulted mostly from the most recent eruption of the volcano at Sullivan Bay. We will be seeing flows from different periods in that eruption.

The Shield Volcano at Sullivan Bay

The elongated shield volcano of Santiago Island is dotted with Holocene pyroclastic cones. Fresh-looking lava flows from these cones blanket the flanks of the volcano. The 920-m-high summit ridge, lined with a chain of NW-trending cinder and spatter cones, is located at the NW end of the island. The most recent activity at Santiago has been concentrated at the NW and SE ends of the island. The volcano that we would be near has erupted numerous times in the historical period, and the flow that we will be walking over is the result of a major eruption in 1906. Since then, the volcano has been quiet.

Click on the thumbnail images below to see some additional views of the volcano cones near Sullivan Bay:

In another view, you can look all the way across the island to the volcano at the southwest side of the island, which has also erupted in historical times. You can see that view here.

I also did a panoramic view of the lava flow and some of the volcano cones beside it, just before we started off on our walk. You can see that panorama below:

So now, let's look at some of the things that our guide pointed out, and I guess we should start with the lava itself.

Pahoehoe (pa-hoy-hoy) Lava

Basaltic magma produces two characteristic types of lava flows. Since most of the research on island vulcanism has been performed in Hawaii, the names of these flows are Hawaiian - pahoehoe ("ropy") and aa ("hurt"). These two types of flows have distinctly different appearances, although their chemical make-up may be quite similar.

Pahoehoe Lava at Sullivan Bay

Pahoehoe lava is smooth, with a twisted, or ropy texture. During a pahoehoe flow the outer skin of lava cools and becomes viscous. The underying lava, however, is insulated and remains quite liquid. As it flows, it carries the cooler skin along with it, causing it to crumple and fold into twisted shapes. Take a look at this "layered" lava flow by clicking on the thumbnail images below:

In the first two images, you can see the underlying flow is actually another layer of pahoehoe lava; there must have been a third layer down. When the top layer solidified in place, the next layer down was also cooling and moving slowly, and it eddied into the same ropy formation. In the third picture, you can see that the underlying layer must have been moving swiftly enough so as not to form those same formations. We can also tell that the lava of that layer must have solidified fairly quickly- probably because the pahoehoe layer broke open and exposed the layer beneath.

I came across a place where the pahoehoe lava had fractured perpendicular to the rope formation, and part of it had broken away; this enabled me to see a pahoehoe cross‑section. You can see that there are actually ropes on ropes in this type of flow- not just a single layer. At other places on the lava flow we walked, we could see that the pahoehoe was only a single thin layer.

Early in the flow, when the lava is hotter, these twists have the appearance of ropes, but later, as it cools and becomes more viscous, the twists are shaped more like entrails. Underneath the solidifying surface, the liquid lava continues to flow, often draining out and leaving hollow cavities which later collapse.

Closeup of Eddied Pahoehoe Flows

We saw a great deal of this kind of lava, and every time we saw some, it seemed that the ropes looked different; sometimes they were thin and straight, and other times they were thick ropes that were twisted. And we saw numerous places where the underlying lava had flowed away and so the pahoehoe surface had buckled or collapsed. While these pictures may be a bit repetitious, if you would like to see some additional pictures of this intricate yet graceful type of lava, just click on some of the thumbnail images below:

The pahoehoe lava formations seemed to occur in patched; much more of the lava seemed to be of the second type.

Aa (ahh) Lava

Some of the Aa Lava at Sullivan Bay

Aa lava in general is more viscous. The outer skin tends to form a rubbly, sharp-edged, blocky surface (it hurts to walk on it). As the flow moves along, the surface rubble at the edge of the flow falls off of the front edge and is over-ridden. Thus, a cross-section of an aa flow reveals a rubbly surface, a solid inner layer of slowly-cooled magma, and finally a narrow zone of over-ridden rubble. The chemical differences between pahoehoe and aa lavas are subtle, but one important aspect is the speed of flow. Flows over steeper terrain move more rapidly and tend to be of the aa type while slower flows tend to form pahoehoe.

Most of the lava flows here at Sullivan Bay were pahoehoe, but examples of the more aa-like type can be found- usually at the head of the flows. These are not classic examples, but serve to illustrate the difference. You can click on the three thumbnail images below to see the three of us standing in the area of more aa-like lava at the shore:

In Galapagos aa flows tend to be more abundant than pahoehoe flows, but they are rare at visitor sites - for obvious reasons. (Here on Santiago, where almost all the flows are pahoehoe, one can only see small sections of this type of lava.

Mollugo

Mullugo crockeri

Mollugo (Mollugo flavescens) is a tiny herb, endemic in the Galapagos Islands. It is one of the two most common "pioneer plants"- the first to begin colonizing lava flows. It has tan or orangey-colored stems, with leaves that are narrow to oval. It has small whitish flowers in Spring.

This rare plant has its own evolutionary story to tell, as it has evolved into species endemic to particular lava flows. Here at Sullivan Bay, the species is actually Mullugo crockeri.

Mollugo can be a colorful plant, particularly against the dark brown or black expanse of the lava that it colonizes. Click on the thumbnail images below for two more views of this interesting plant (only two stands of which we found):

Lava Cactus

The lava cactus (Brachycereus nesioticus) is a species of cactus and the sole species of the genus Brachycereus. The plant is a colonizer of lava fields, hence its common name. It is endemic to the Galįpagos Islands. ("Endemism" is the characteristic of a plant or animal that refers to its only being found in specific geographical locations.)

Lava Cactus (Brachycereus nesioticus)

The lava cactus plant has soft, furry spines and grows in clumps to a height of about two feet (60 cm). New growth is yellow, turning to brown, which darkens to gray with age. The creamy white flowers are visible in the early morning hours only, and normally fade by 8 in the morning.

As its name suggests, the lava cactus occurs exclusively on barren lava fields, lying at sea level. Not only is it one of the few plants that survive in this extremely dry, challenging habitat, it is often one of the first plants to colonize a fresh lava flow.

Despite the scientific interest that the Galįpagos Islands have received ever since Darwin visited in 1835, and the numerous observations of the lava cactus, the biology of this plant remains poorly known. Like all cacti, this succulent plant is capable of storing moisture in its stems when water is available, enabling it to survive periods of drought, and the spines, which are actually the leaves of the cactus, provide defense against any plant-eating animals.

If you would like to see more of this interesting plant, you can click on the thumbnail images below for some other clumps of the plant that we found during our walk:

While the Galįpagos are a protected area, and are considered one of the most unspoiled areas remaining on the planet, the fauna and flora of these islands still face major threats, such as introduced species, pressure from increasing tourist numbers, and a decline in the maintenance of protective laws. However, the lava cactus is not currently known to be facing any specific threats. It is considered vulnerable based primarily on its restricted distribution. It is listed as a vulnerable species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Lava Tubes and Lava Caves

Lava flows sometimes lead to interesting formations; two of these are lava tubes and lava caves. A lava tube is formed when the top of the flow cools enough so that it solidifies and stays in place while the molten lava below it continues to flow.

Standing in a Small Lave Tube

When the eruption dies down, the still-molten lava will either stop in place and solidify or, if there is an outlet for the lava (perhaps into the sea) it will continue to flow. The lava may then drain out of the space under the solidified crust, leaving a hollow tube. These may run all the way from the eruption site to the farthest extent of the flow, and they may be only a few feet in diameter or the size of an automobile tunnel. (We have walked through a couple of famous ones on the Big Island of Hawaii.)

Our group encountered one small lava tube, which was only a few feet high and wide. We would not have known we were walking over it if a small portion of the solidified "ceiling" had not collapsed and left this keyhole‑shaped opening. There were no rules involving rock formations on the Galapagos (except that you must not remove any of them), so I decided to lower myself into the tube and let Fred get a picture or two. In the picture at left, he included the feet of some of our group so as to provide some scale.

As the group moved off, I thought I would get out my extender and see if I could get a good picture of myself standing in the lava tube. It worked tolerably well, and I ended up with a pretty good " lava tube selfie".

There are places, Hawaii comes again to mind, where volcano lava flows have, over time, been turned into lava caves (the distinction seeming to be that a lave tube is a tube, and everything else is a lava cave). We did not find any caves of any real extent (probably because this flow is so close to the shore and so recent), we did come across one that satisfied my need to climb down into it.

Sitting in a Small Lave Cave

Take this cave, for example. It was really more of an overhang, but it was fun to get into it nevertheless. Nobody joined me, though; they stood up above me listening to the naturalist talking about something. Fred took the picture at right, and I used my extender to take a couple of pictures of myself; you can click on the two thumbnail images below to see a couple of these:

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

I guess the pictures of the little cave I was in are good enough to describe it, but since I was in a sheltered place for a change (no wind noise), I thought I would make a movie using the extender so I could get into it myself. You can use the player at left to watch that movie.

After I finished the movie, I climbed out of the cave and found myself playing catchup to rejoin the group.

As far as other cracks and crevices were concerned, there were many of them. In spots, what had once been the solid crust with lava flowing underneath had cracked and buckled. And we ran across a couple of places where the crust layer had not collapsed so much as been pierced by the pressure of the still molten lava underneath. This created like of a lava blow hole and you can see in that picture how some of the lava bubbling up from underneath had created a very small cone-shaped formation.

You can see a different kind of that same formation here. Apparently the underlying lava did not drain away in this case, for there no cavity left below the cone. What was interesting was the spattering around this cone. The lava must have been very viscous, but not enough to flow. The spattering around the opening looked and felt very much like volcanic glass.

Sulfur Cracks

If you have ever been to an area that is still volcanically active, like Yellowstone National Park, you have undoubtedly smelled sulfurous odors; the gases that accompany the lava have a lot of it. Here at Sullivan Bay, there were not large deposits of it, but it did color the lava in places.

Lava Cracks Outlined with Sulfur Deposits

At many places across the lava flow, we found cracks in the surface lava. These cracks were not always big enough to actually be a rupture in that solidified lava layer, although some were. No matter the size, when there was still hot lava and gases underneath, the gases were forced up through the cracks. As these gases escaped, they left behind some of their sulfur content, encrusting the rock right along the fault lines.

Sometimes, if the lava buckled a great deal, you could see the sulfur deposits clinging to the sides of the fissures as well. These sulfur deposits were just about the only bits of color that we saw anywhere on the flow (save for the flora, of course), and I thought they were very interesting. If you would like to see some more examples of this, just click on the thumbnail images below:

The Most Recent Lava Flow

Towards the perigee of our walk, we came to an area that our naturalist guide told us was the most recent lava flow here at Sullivan Bay. It was actually part of the early-1900s eruption, but it occurred through a side fissure and flowed over a different area. It presented as a small area of lava flowing over much older weathered rock, so there was a big color difference that was very interesting.

Yoost at the End of One Branch of the Lava Flow

With the help of our naturalist, we were able to trace the progress of this eruption which, it is thought, took only a few days from start to finish. It began, apparently, at the base of an older cinder cone, where a fissure opened to create a new spatter cone. Lava burst out of it and soon created a fairly large area of molten rock; this lava eventually flowed down one side of the hill towards the ocean to join the earlier flows. You can see that here.

But we walked around a low hill that had caused the flow to divide, and came to an area where you could see that the flow again found an area where gravity brought it downward towards a low valley. Had the eruption not come to an end, this low area might have been filled with new rock, but as it was, the eruption did end and this particular part of the lava flow froze in place.

This happened just in time for yours truly.

I thought that it was this contrast between the red, rocky cinder cone and the new, much darker-colored lava that was interesting (reminiscent of the flows we'd seen in Hawaii where new lava had flowed through vegetation and come to a stop).

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

Near this area, we climbed up onto a hill from which we could get good views here at the farthest point of our walk on the lava flows. Some of the rock formations were interesting, and I got a nice picture of Fred with an interesting volcanic cone in the background. This cone appears in some other pictures, and in them you can see that at some point the entire cone fractured and the two halves pulled away from each other. I hadn't seen this kind of thing before. We took a lot of pictures as we climbed around on the red rock cinder cones that cover this area of the island, and I have put a selection of these into a slideshow.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

Before I left the top of the hill to rejoin the group, who were heading south a bit before turning back toward the bay, I got Yoost to participate in a panorama. I took a series of pictures, beginning with one where Yoost was standing near me. Then, as I took the other pictures in the series, he went on down the hill to follow the group on the trail to the south. He appears again in the last of the pictures I took- much further away and on the trail back. Use the scrollable window below to pan across the picture, and notice Yoost at the left and at the right:

From here, our group moved back across the main lava flow towards the bay. We saw more of what we'd seen on the way out on our walk, but we saw some new things as well- a different type of lava cactus, some finches and lots of interesting lava formations.

Trying not to be repetitive, I've selected some of the other pictures we took that show some of these new things we saw, or that display different perspectives on views we already had. I have put this selection of pictures into the slideshow below.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image below and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

The walk was really neat, and we saw quite a bit, and when we got back to the beach we had a little while to wait until the next Zodiac came to get us.

I used this time to take the series of pictures that I would need to construct a complete, 360° view of Sullivan Bay and the lava flows we had traversed. I have put this panorama in the scrollable window below so that you may pan across it:

Lunch Aboard the Celebrity Xpedition

Back on board the Xpedition, there was to be a BBQ Lunch prepared at the Beagle Grill, located on the stern patio on Deck 4. There would also be some special drinks in the bar. We picked up some of those drinks when we returned, and sat in the lounge for a while talking about the lava walk we'd taken. This is where Fred found Greg and I talking with Nancy and Al about the excursion. Today, Nancy gave me the underwater disposable camera that she had brought, and asked me to take some pictures with it the next time I went snorkeling. I was happy to do that, having wished that I had one myself.

Just before we had lunch, I spent some time talking with our Friend Eileen about the daily emails Fred and I sent out. Meanwhile, Fred went out to the grill to get a plate of lunch; he brought it back and set it down near me to snap a picture (the one you see at left). While Fred ate and kept an eye on the laptop, I went to get my own.

After lunch, and before our next shore excursion, there was a lecture in the lounge on the Geology of the Galapagos; much of the information I used to describe the pictures taken during this morning's shore excursion came from that lecture.

Galapagos Shore Excursion (6):
          A Long Walk to the Summit of Bartolome Island

Last night, when we were signing up for today's excursions, the four of us chose the long walk to the summit of Bartolome Island, followed by the snorkeling opportunity. Greg, who had not felt so good this morning, was better when we got back on board, but he ate only a very light lunch and decided to skip the long walk as well, so as to ensure he got over whatever it was that had made him feel bad.

The daily bulletin described this excursion thusly:

"Bartolome Island is one of the most spectacular geologic settings in the Galapagos. As one of the relatively younger islands, its volcanic origins are easy to see. The view from the top of the island (volcano) is perhaps the most famous in all the Galapagos. The hike up is at times steep and over 300 stairs, but the view is worth it. There will be a dry landing for the hike, but a wet landing at the beach for the snorkeling. The hike will be across a boardwalk and staircase; 380 steps will be involved from the landing site to the summit, about 400 feet above sea level. Duration: About 2.5 hours"

The Zodiac Ride in to Bartolome Island

Even before boarding the Zodiacs we could see Bartolome Island off the port side of the ship, and it was only a mile or so away. The trip in took only a few minutes and we nosed in to a concrete platform dock on the rocky, lava flow shoreline of the island.

As you can see, we had a small welcoming committee that we had to step around carefully, since he showed no interest or inclination to get out of our way as we came up from the Zodiac.

The Walk to the First Overlook Platform

The hike up to the summit was, essentially, one long trip up a boardwalk with a whole bunch of steps. There were some platforms along the boardwalk where we stopped to listen to our naturalist. The first one was along a fairly level portion of the boardwalk, not far from the shore.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Just after we started out from the shore, Fred stopped me on the boardwalk so he could get a picture. Shortly after that, I made my first movie. Like many of those I made on this trip, the wind noise overpowered my narrative, so for this movie I have again eliminated the audio track (and my fascinating narration).

I took a number of pictures on the way to and at the first platform where we stopped, and you can click on the thumbnail images below to see some of them:

This first part of the hike had only a few steps, but we could see that the steeper part was coming up.

Climbing to the Second Platform

To get to the second platform, which offered views of the Xpedition anchored in the bay, we had to climb maybe 50 steps to a "T" in the boardwalk, where we could go right a few feet to the platform, or left to continue on up the hillside.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

As I was climbing up to the "T" intersection, I was making a movie (trying not to trip since I was trying to look at the camera and not at my feet). You can use the player at left to watch that movie (sound, this time), and you can see the picture that Fred snapped of me in the middle of my filming here.

From this platform, we got a good view of the Xpedition in the bay, and we could also see the large clump of lava cactus on the hill just below us. Fred used his zoom to get an excellent close‑up view of the cactus.

From the platform, I took a picture of Fred, who was standing on the section of the boardwalk between the "intersection" and the platform on which I was standing. Looking behind Fred, you can see the boardwalk curving up and away to the right towards the next observation platform and, just a few feet behind him, you can see the part of the boardwalk that leads back down the way we had come up. Have a look at that picture here.

Climbing to the Third Platform

The boardwalk to the next platform, which had a similar view to the second one but was higher up, led a bit east and then up around another pile of rock.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

As we were leaving the second platform for the third, I made another movie, but again the wind noise I found to be distracting, and so I have eliminated it. You can use the player at left to watch this particular movie, if you want. In it, I am simply saying that we have come up to this second platform and taken in its good views of the harbor, and now are heading up to the third. I also made mention of the folks behind me (from another Zodiac that had landed at the pier below) climbing up to the platform we are just leaving.

On the stairs up to the next platform, I took a couple of pictures of folks behind me making the ascent. You can click on the thumbnail images below to have a look at these pictures:

When we got up to this next platform we found that it did, indeed, have even better views of the harbor than the second platform lower down (the one you can see in the middle picture of the set below). At this platform, we took pictures of each other, and you can see all three of these pictures if you click on the thumbnail images below:

While our group was on this third platform, I used my camera's panoramic function to make one (this works better than trying to stitch individual pictures together whenever there are objects in the pictures that are likely to move). You can have a look at that panorama below:

The View from Our Third Overlook Platform

Platform Four

The fourth platform was even higher, but it had a view to the other side of the island, as well as across to the much larger island of Santiago.

The View from Platform Four

We began the leg of the climb by leaving the third platform and walking along a level boardwalk for a ways. It was on this part of the boardwalk that I made the last movie above; unbeknownst to me, Fred was taking my picture as I was making that movie. We walked along that level portion and the curved around and ascended some more steps. The fourth platform was off to our left at the end of a spur of the boardwalk. That is where Fred got a picture of Yoost and I and I got a picture of Fred.

The boardwalk was actually elevated off the ground, probably because if everyone was trooping over the landscape it would quickly become quite a mess. (Plus it would be hard, if not impossible, for most folks to make it to the summit at all.) That said, I looked over the edge of the railing along the walkway and saw what I thought was an interesting rock formation that seemed a bit out of place amidst the other bland rocks that we had seen so far.

Leaving this platform overlook, we went back to the main walkway to continue our walk to the summit with a stop at the last of the overlooks. Looking back to the main walkway, I took a picture of Fred, and you can see the summit where we will end up shortly, as well as the main walkway behind him. Take a look at that picture here.

The Last Platform on the Way to the Summit

There was one last viewpoint just before the boardwalk turned into the final set of stairs up to the summit, and this viewpoint again gave us expansive views of Bartolome and of Santiago.

The View Towards the Summit from the Last Platform

We got to this platform after the main part of the group had left it heading up the stairs to the summit; you can see them behind me in the picture at left.

There were, of course, great views from here, and you can see some of them if you will click on the thumbnail images below:

Yoost got a nice closeup of Kicker Rock and the nearby beach; this is where we will be going to do our snorkeling this afternoon.

After a number of tries, I got my camera to take a pretty good panorama from here at the last platform. The bay where the Xpedition is anchored is out of the picture to the right, but you can see Kicker Rock towards the right of the picture and, behind it, the lava flows where we had walked this morning (and from which we had taken pictures, included above, showing the view of Kicker Rock and this summit from the other direction). This panorama is below:

The View from the Last Overlook Platform

The Summit at Last

Well, now it's time for the payoff- the last set of stairs up to the summit to see the views from there. I was the last group member to leave the final overlook because I wanted to take a movie on the way up. I did not know it, but Fred got a picture of me making my movie as I walked up the stairs.

(Mouseover Image if Video Controls Not Visible)

Yet again, on reviewing the movie I found way too much wind noise to leave in, so, once again, I have taken out the audio track from my movie- which you can use the player at right to watch. In the narrative, I am just stating the obvious anyway- that we are leaving the final overlook for the last set of stairs up to the summit.

At the very summit of Bartolome, there is a beacon that is housed in a small structure to resemble a lighthouse; it is the backdrop of many of the tourist pictures taken at the summit, and ours were no exception. You can see just two of the pictures we took if you click on the thumbnail images at left.

The last set of steps to the summit were the steepest of all, and when we got up near the little lighthouse, it was interesting to look way back down to the last observation platform- and you can see how far down it was. Taking that picture prompted me to take a series of four that would show the entire last sections of the boardwalk, the last two platforms, and the steps up to the summit. You can see that panorama below:

It was pretty neat up here at the summit, although it was windy and hard to take movies. We did get good views of the Xpedition at anchor, and Fred was able to use his zoom to take a few telephoto closeups of the beach near Kicker Rock were we would be going snorkeling a bit later. There was already a group down there, as you can see in some of his pictures; they were the ones who chose not to make the hike up here to the summit but to take a Zodiac ride instead before their own snorkeling. Anyway, if you will click on the thumbnail images below, you can see the best of the many other pictures we took here at the summit:

For the final picture of the day from here at the summit, I went and stood with my back to the lighthouse and took a series of pictures of the panoramic scene in front of me. When I stitched them together, I think the result came out well, and you can use the scrollable window below to have a look at it:

The Trip Back Down to the Pier

We had seen what there was to see on the walk up to the summit, so there wasn't much new on the way down. But there is always a different perspective in coming at things from a different direction.

We didn't take a great many more pictures on the way down, but some of the ones we did take are worth including here- including a good view of Kicker Rock from the Zodiac pier. If you would like to see these pictures, just click on the thumbnail images below:

Back at the pier, we waited only a short while for a Zodiac to come pick us up and take us over to the beach near Kicker Rock so we could snorkel.

Galapagos Shore Excursion (7):
          Snorkeling on Bartolome Island

When the Zodiacs came to the pier, those folks not snorkeling were taken directly back to the Xpedition, but those of us who'd signed up to snorkel were taken across the bay to Kicker Rock where our snorkeling equipment had been taken for us.

Personally, I don't think that wetsuits are flattering for most people (although Fred looked fine)- kind of like spandex on bicyclists. So I didn't care much for the way the few pictures that we took of ourselves all decked out turned out. But we thanked Yoost who too a series of pictures of us, the two best of which are at left.

Snorkeling here at Kicker Rock was pretty good; there were quite a few different fish, and I enjoyed it. I think Fred was getting the hang of it as well. What made this outing different was that I had Nancy's disposable underwater camera to use. She asked me to use up the film and then send her a set of the prints made from the film, which I gladly agreed to do.

Now, I have no idea what the fish were that I was looking at. Some folks said they saw sharks, and other said they'd seen sea lions or other animals that are easily identified. I didn't, though, but I did take pictures of the more colorful or numerous fish that I came across.

So, unlike other places in the album pages for this trip, all I can do here is show you the best of the underwater pictures that I took. Like these:

As I mentioned earlier, I was able to borrow an underwater camera to take along with me on our snorkeling outing, and I actually got some good pictures.

Click on the Image Above to View the Slideshow

Maybe, if you are a snorkeler, you might recognize some of the sea creatures in the pictures I took, but if you aren't, you can still appreciate the variety of sea life to be seen here in the Galapagos. Some of my pictures didn't turn out well, but you can look at the ones that did if you'll zip through the slideshow I've created.

To view the slideshow, just click on the image at left and I will open the slideshow in a new window. In the slideshow, you can use the little arrows in the lower corners of each image to move from one to the next, and the index numbers in the upper left of each image will tell you where you are in the series. When you are finished looking at the pictures, just close the popup window.

We really enjoyed the snorkeling sessions that we had, although it made me wish that I had a better-quality underwater camera, or at least some sort of watertight container for the little camera that I do have. I had a chance to look at some of the pictures that other folks with more professional setups took, and they were quite good, some of them.

Evening on the Celebrity Xpedition

Our evening on the Xpedition was pretty typical, with dinner, conversation, working on our email updates and so on. Tonight there was also a very pretty sunset that Fred photographed quite well. So if you want to see this evening's few candid shots, just click on the thumbnail images below:

You can use the links below to continue to another photo album page.

	November 9-16, 2014: A Tour of the Celebrity Xpedition
	November 11, 2014: Isabela Island
	Return to the Index for Our Galapagos Adventure