...climbing up ....

at this point in my travel journal, the family is visiting bartholome, a tee-tinsy island on the coast of santiago in the galapagos.... bartholome was the name of a sailor on darwin's beagle trip ... he was a pal of darwin's 

...so, after arriving to our sealion greeter at the dock on bartholome, we started climbing and walking ...

 the galapagos park services had build a woodedn walkway and stairs to the top of the island .... they did it to keep the land untrounced by humans ... but the land was mostly rocky ... actually, it looked like mars ... so there didn't seem to be too much that humans could mess up ... nonetheless, it appears the humans are good direction followers and stay on the path ....

this pic below is of our boat ...

 and here's a pic of the boardwalk .... complete with a lava lizard .....

it was very long ... very high ... lots of steps ..... and the sun was high and hot ... i think it maybe felt hotter because there was not greenery ... just lava rock and ash rock soaking up the heat ....

you can tell from the pics above and below that bartholome is quite arid ... super dry .... mars red ... moon gray .... the landscapes were other worldy really .... 

 bartholome is a "young island" ... there was eruption as recently (i think) as two hundred years ago ... darwin evidently walked on it when it was quite new ....

 when we got to the top of the volcano peak that is bartholome, we were greeted by a hawk hovering above us .... alejandro told us to enjoy its beauty, that galapagos hawks aren't a common sight ....

 we were at the top of this island and the hawk just hovered over us, seemingly staying in one spot, as it glided against the wind .... he (or she) must have been there a good ten minutes gliding for us .... then? she was nice enough to land and pose for shots ....

.... it made alejandro especially happy that the hawk landed for us ... just on the railing of the walkway where we were standing ...

from the railing opposite the hawk, this was the view :

we were overlooking two small inlets where we were going to snorkle after lunch ... we were HOT so the prospect of swimming in cold water was a happy thought ....

 that's the five of us, not quite at the peak of bartholome, opposite where the hawk had landed ... he's maybe fifteen, 20 feet away from us now ....

here are drew and i .... right over drew's shoulder is "the pinnacle" ... a pointy rock ... it's something of symbol of the galapagos ... a very well known geological feature ... there used to be two such pointy rocks, but during the time that the U.S. military had a base in the galapagos, the other point was taken out on a practice bombing run ... it was obliterated for practice ...

here's a good pic to see how high we were .... the point you see is where the sealion greeter was ... where our panga let us ashore ....

if you study that picture above, you can make out the narrow path/boardwalk that we came up .... and at the lower left you see a part of a circle underwater?

well, that circle is this:

 can you tell what it is? an underwater caldera ... a bowl ... a bit of an imploded volcano .... i'm not clear on the difference between a caldera and a crater ... but this is evidently a caldera ... or so i was told ... 

when we walked back down, our sealion had moved over to make room for a pal ... they were not interested in moving or letting us pass ... they were a bit snarly when anyone came close ... oh my!! they sound a bit like dogs when annoyed with humans ....

 but eventually, alejandro's clapping and whistling made one jump in the water ... the other was a bit more stubborn ... she just sat there blocking our way and barking back at him ....

but eventually she moved ... and we went back to the boat for lunch ... and then an afternoon of snorkeling ... which i'll tell you about tomorrow ...