Before the sun really rose and got too hot, we stepped ashore at Sullivan Bay on Santiago Island for a walk over the recently formed island. Recently meaning it erupted only 107 years ago, the eruption lasted 2 ½ years and created a 7 kilometres extension of land.

The smooth black pahoehoe lava created an easy walking surface with lovely patterns while the rough AA lava did not.

The black lava had silica and iron and I am glad that I am not here in February or March when it is really too hot to walk on … hot enough to fry an egg on the surface. This type of lava can only be found here in the Galapagos, Hawaii, Iceland and in Italy.

Vegetation has just starting to take hold on this barren landscape. In fact looking into the sun it reminded me of an ice pack but in this case was coloured black. One picture is of where there was a tree trunk or branch and now you can only see the bark imprint in the larva.





































































































































































































































































































































































































It was eerily silent with only the wind and the sounds of us humans talking. Minimal animal life was observed.

After this, a zodiac cruise over to Bartolome Island to try and find Galapagos penguins. Only two were spotted on the rocky shore.