Galapagos: Santiago Island at Sullivan Bay

After everyone was back aboard the Islander she began to sail north through the Bainbridge Islets, just off Santiago Island.

These rocks are not open to tourism, but we can cruise by slowly. One of the islets is known for its brackish caldera lagoon,

which attracts flamingos.

We arrived at Sullivan Bay, where a pahoehoe (ropy) lava flow from a volcanic eruption in 1897 meets the sea. There are patches of a'a (sharp) lava, but the hike avoids them. In this photo, the naturalist Vanessa is being interviewed for the voyage DVD.

A group ahead of us is backstopped by the cone, left, from which the lava flowed in 1897. We were glad to be clambering over this dark jumble in the late afternoon, and not in the heat of midday.

Here, our friend Rick points out some driftwood that's washed up.

The pahoehoe lava created many folds and patterns, no two the same.

This section shares a geometry with a staircase, or folded batter, or perhaps draped cloth?

The first colonizer of such lava flows is Mullago flavescens, sometimes called carpetweed. This plant is endemic (limited to) the Galapagos, and survives on overnight dew.

Hornitos are spatter cones formed when lava flows up through cracks in the cooling upper lava.

Some fractures revealed eruption histories. The pigmentation is due to iron and other elements sealed off from oxygen in the air.

We were in several groups, which made for some amusing perspectives.

Then we spotted this impressive lava cactus, another early colonizer of lava fields.

This could be a chunk of ejecta which plopped into still-elastic lava and years later was dislodged.

Here is a collaboration between vanished plant life and the lava, a tree cast. The lava cooled around the piece of wood, long since vanished. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)

This looks like another tree cast, but shelter-seekers have left debris inside.

 Animal life on the lava, a large painted locust, yet another species endemic to the Galapagos.

There was even a lizard ... hunting the locust or his buddies?

Sometimes the lava had slumped into a few large plates, preserving the overall figure generated by the pahoehoe.

The 1897 flow, only 1½ meters deep, did not completely cover this area. High spots remained; the term for a location completely surrounded by newer lava is a kipuka.

Looking back towards the sea, we saw (far right) the rock formation known as the Pinnacle.

Rick had taken a much better picture of it earlier. The Pinnacle looks a bit like a Lego block.

We returned to the Islander, and after dinner Christian led us in some singing.

The ship's doctor joined in for a couple of songs,

as did Jeffo.

I'll note that in 1997 Lindblad Expeditions "adopted" Santiago Island and created a fund through which 20,000 Lindblad guests contributed to a restoration effort. Feral goats and pigs have now been eliminated from the island, allowing the vegetation and native animals to recover.

Tomorrow we'll explore the northern island of Genovesa.