Bartholome

For the last day of the holiday, rather than relaxing and packing, I decided to sign up for a trip to the most photographed place in the Galapagos Islands. A day trip (leaving at 5am) to Bartholome Island. A small island just off Santiago. The famous site there is 'Pinnacle Rock' which juts out the side at a very strange angle.

We were picked up at 5.25am (after having waited 25 minutes) and driven across the islands to the harbour at the north and boarded our boat there. After breakfast we sat up on the deck for the 2 and a half our trip to Bartholome. Luckily this boat wasn't a speed boat crasing against the waves, but a gentle put-putter! Bartholome was actually right next to Cousins Rock where I had been diving 2 days earlier and it had taken an hour less to get there! But we sunbathed and finished off our nights sleep on the way.

We arrived and climbed the Volcano on Bartholome (not too high) to one of the most amazing views there are. The guide pointed out that there was one beach (with Pinnacle Rock) for people to swim, snorkel etc and the other one was for turtles! It was protected and people were not allowed there.

After taking a mountain of photographs we went back down the volcano and round to the beach to snorkel. I felt quite brave and swam out round the rock and to the lagoon type area where there were supposed to be penguins. We found one penguin busy cleaning his feathers and swam up closer. He didn't flinch and just carried on with what he was doing. We got closer and ended up close enough to reach out and touch him and he still didn't bother with us.

We came back round the beach and waited for the small boat to take us to our bigger boat. As we were waiting, most other groups had left and we ended up being some of only a few people on the beach. When the bay is quiet, the penguins and sea lions come round to swim, play and fish. We were standing knee deep in the water and they were swimming all around us. It was truly amazing. We caught our boat, went back to to the bigger boat for lunch and slowly made our way home.

An amazing finish to an amazing holiday. Probably the best of my life so far!

The view from the Volcano. And Pinnacle Rock.