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Mathilde and I were up early ready for Isla Bartolome. Unfortunately a mix up the day before meant Carly could no longer come with us, so she went to Floreana instead.
It was just over a 2 hour speed boat ride to Bartolome and despite the rather bumpy ride I managed to sleep for most of it. However, I woke up to see a huge pod of dolphins around the boat. There were roughly 100 in total and Mathilde and I had the best seat in the house at the front of the boat. The dolphins kept jumping in front of the boat right out of the water which made for some awesome photographs.
After a bit of fun we had to leave them and set anchor just off shore. On Bartolome we had a walk up to the top of a volcano. On the way up we could see a big round crater that was just submerged underwater. We saw endemic plants and cactuses on the ascent but the main attraction was the view at the top. It was beautiful. There were white sandy beaches in the distance and in front was a peninsula that stuck out into the ocean with 2 giant bays either side, it was very photogenic.
It had been a good start today but things were about to get better because on the short descent we spotted about 3 killer whales (orcas) in the distance out at sea. They kept breaking the surface with their giant dorsal fin, i got a few shots but even with the zoom they were still some way off!
We raced back down after and tried to persuade the captain to follow them but with no luck. Instead, we headed to one of the white sandy beaches and after admiring the scenery for a full 30 seconds took to the water.
Before long we found a marine iguana swimming underwater which was a first but soon turned around to play with penguins instead. There was a small set of rocks slightly further out to see and the penguin was using us to force the fish into a box so he could eat them. The penguin was so quick and not scared of us at all coming right up to our faces.
Once i was penguined up I went for a snorkel further round the cove but only a stone fish was noteworthy so I turned back around to play with the penguin once more.
Once our time was up we enjoyed a nice cooked lunch on board and then headed up top for the way back to see if we could find the orcas. Our luck had run out though.
Back at Puerto Ayora we went for food with Tito and co from the agency and then headed to the water front where some mothers day fun was happening on a big stage. It involved an old granny dancing to win a kitchen and was all rather surreal. We had another early start lined up though so called it a night early on again.
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