Before booking my Galapagos trip, I had to figure out which islands to visit. G Adventures offers many different tours and the Galapagos islands are too expansive to see everything in one visit, so I had to prioritize. I turned to Google Images and this is the first photo that grabbed my attention:

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This image was taken on Bartolome Island, with Pinnacle Rock in the distance. And here’s an image of my own from that very same beach:

Our group spends time snorkeling in the shallow water and laying on the sand. This is the first (and only) time I’ve ever spotted a shark while snorkeling! More on that in an upcoming post about underwater life in the Galapagos.

We travel by panga to a nearby dock and begin hiking to an overlook point.

We climb up and up…

I pick up a piece of volcanic rock and I’m surprised to discover it weighs next to nothing.

We finally reach the overlook point and I’m rewarded with another vista that first grabbed my attention while researching on Google Images.

This view alone is worth a trip to the Galapagos.

On the way back down I chat with Eric, who is on the tour with his lovely wife Abby. They are nearly finished with a year-long trip around the world. They put their jobs on hold back in the U.K. (Eric is a cyclist, Abby is a nurse) and rented out their home in order to travel for a full year. Eric tells me about their time in SE Asia, India, and touring South America by overland vehicle. When I ask him to name his absolute favorite destination, he answers without hesitation: Angkor Wat, Cambodia. He describes it like being on a film set, as if the whole place is something out of a movie. I am immediately intrigued. Eric suggests I not look at any photos on-line to spoil the landscape and just GO.

And the following November, exactly one year later, I found myself in Cambodia.

But back to Bartolome Island. Eric and I take a goofy photo of our elongated shadows.

Eric asks if I’ll photograph him juggling. He gets a shot of him juggling in every country that he and Abby have traveled to.

Once we are back on board the panga, our group sets off to another area on the island in search of tropical penguins. If memory serves correct, there are only around 800 in the Galapagos.

Our panga driver turns off the motor as we approach this cove, an area known to host penguins.

We occasionally see them zip around us in the water. They are SO fast. Then we spot a few on land!

We head back to the boat just as the sun sets.

Here’s Jared (from Ireland) on the left, and the aforementioned world travelers Abby & Eric on the right.

Actually, Jared and his girlfriend are just starting out on their own around-the-world trip. They’ve come from visiting Canada and plan to continue south into Chile and fly to Easter Island on Christmas, then go on to New Zealand and Australia. I wish I’d kept in touch to hear how their trip went.

We get back to our boat and indulge in Jimmy’s mixed drinks.

I think the guy on the far left is Frank. Then there’s Kevin and Molly from Vancouver, who I remember playing Yahtzee with that night in the dining room. I’m to their right, and next to me is Deidra from Alberta, Canada. One of my favorite parts of traveling with G Adventures is meeting other people! Deidra and I have kept in touch over the years, visiting each other while traveling through our respective cities. She is awesome.

We sip our cocktails and watch another pretty sunset.

I have a confession about this day: I was initially upset that our group wouldn’t dock in Bartolome until late afternoon, as the sun would be facing the wrong direction for photos. Everything would be in shadows instead of lit up by the sun — and I wanted to see rich brown and green tones, not colors muted by shadow. That’s part of the problem with picking a tour based on Google Images… it sets up certain expectations. If I’d had no warning of just how stunning Bartolome would be, I wouldn’t have been “disappointed” with the sunlight — I would’ve been too overwhelmed by the island’s beauty to notice. And looking back on my photos now, I realize how special it was to capture the island in that particular light. It’s a good lesson to let go of expectations and just be in the moment, appreciating the sparkling landscape before me.

After Espanola Island / Gardner Bay, this is my second favorite day of the whole trip.