Isla Bartolomé and Chinese Hat

If we’ve manged to keep track of our days and islands, this is the 7th day of the voyage and started with a hike across Bartolomé. It’s an absolutely beautiful place.

The park service has constructed decks and wooden walkways that allow you to climb up a big volcanic formation for a view. The Russian couple continued their show with ridiculous poses and cracked everyone up, but we never managed to capture it. Angela re-enacted one shot for posterity.

After the hike, we hit the local beach and did some more snorkeling. There are worse ways to spend your days.

In the afternoon, we cruised south to Chinese Hat. On the way, we passed a huge volcanic bowl island full of flamingos. Really.

Near Chinese Hat, we found some equatorial penguins but were never able to swim with them or even get photos – they’re way too fast.  But, we were treated to an extended underwater recess with a couple of very playful sea lions. We never get tired of those little guys and they are really playful and curious. Graceful too. They chased each other and swam circles around us, trying to get us into the game for what felt like forever. A great way to wrap up the excursion.

It was our last night on the boat, so everyone (except those darned Russians) spent the evening acting goofy on the top deck until the wee hours. Good times.

Oh, and, thanks to Erik at American Tie Dye for sending Bode this cool shirt for Christmas. I don’t know how you tie-dye a VW symbol, but apparently he has the technology.