Bartolome And The moon

Friday, July 30th
Woke up on Isla Bartolome and hiked up numerous steps to the top of the island. This is the only island where they have built a wooden walkway. The reason for this is beause the entire island is made of ash and volcanic rock. Scientists say that this island is the closest thing to the surface of the moon. In order to preserve the island's surface and shape, they needed to built a walkway so people aren't destroying the natural environment. The view from the top was incredible and it really did look like something from another planet. After summiting, we hiked to another part of the island where there was beach known to house black-tip reef sharks. Sure enough we saw a few of them swimming very close to shore. Next, we jumped in the frigid water and snorkeled around a "famous" point called the pinnacle rock. It's famous because you see a picture of this rock in almost store that sells postcards in the galapagos. The rock is also very unusual looking. It's a tall, black, volcanic, cone-shaped, pointed rock with a spiral like formation from the base to the top. It really is quite unique and fascinating to look at. During the snorkel we swam with lots of fish and some galapagos penguins. The penguins were unbelieveably fast. They are like the cheetahs of the sea and you couldn't try to keep up with them if you tried. Following the exciting swim, we set sail for 4 hours to an island called North Seymour. There on the island, we hiked around for a few hours and saw much of the same species of animals that we have seen on all the other islands.