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We cast off for 4.5 km² Rábida Island 20 km north of Santa Cruz Island. This island is renown for its red sand and brown pelican nursery. The heat had knocked my cold back so I was ready to go. The beach had many Galápagos sea lions. I snapped one of my favourite photos of a mother and baby asleep in the sun on the red sand (below). The sand is derived from a cinder cone that is being eroded by the sea near the beach.

We saw many juvenile brown pelicans that were still being fed by their parents. Pelicans are everywhere around the islands. They like to hang around boats. Natural selection can only work on genetic materials and body plans at hand. Its shortcomings are tragically illustrated in the pelican. We learned that the constant plunging into the water eventually damages their brains causing them to go blind and their death. I can sympathize. My aching lower back is the result of taking the spine of a quadruped (like a bridge) and making it into a vertical mast. The boobys fared better that pelicans or people. They have shock absorbing structures in their heads. We saw that in action while snorkelling at Rábida. Boobys were plunging into the water all around us after schools of sardine size fish from many metres in the air. It was quite a sight to see them feeding under water.

Brown pelican Photo by Lionel Jackson

Brown pelican chick Photo by Lionel Jackson

They seem to go down to several metres depth and then return to the surface and become airborne in a second or two. We had sea lions swimming with us as well as a white tip reef shark as we snorkelled back to the red sand beach from an adjacent bay where the Zodiac dropped us off.

From Rábida Island, we steered northeast in the straight between Santa Cruz Island to the south and 585 km² Santiago Island to the north. Santiago was visited by Darwin (it was called James then: Santiago is the Spanish equivalent). Darwin would have scarcely recognized it. About 50 years after his visit there was a huge outpouring of lava from volcanoes on the east side of the island. About 17 km of new coast was added to the island and former small islands along the coast of Santiago were engulfed. Now they are hills rising from the lava flows. The jet black lava flows included jagged pressure ridges where solid crusts on lava flows were broken and shoved upward by fresh pulses of more lava from upslope. To the east, we got a good view of 150 km long Isabela Island, the largest and the youngest island (along with Fernandina). It is made up of a chain of shield volcanoes close to 2000 m high.

There are many wonders on Isabela from coral reefs lifted out of the sea in a recent earthquake to flightless cormorants that evolved there. Tortoises use volcanic heat to incubate their eggs at the summit of Alcedo volcano, the middle peak in the picture above. If I ever return, Isabela and Fernandina will be my destination.

Frigate bird Photo by Lionel Jackson

Washington and frigate bird Photo by Lionel Jackson

Until now, I have not mentioned the frigate birds. These large black soaring birds are everywhere and love to catch drafts around the Guantanamera. They, like the albatross, have the ability to sleep in the air and can stay airborne for weeks. They will roost on boats. They cannot swim. If they hit the water they are dead. They get much of their food by grabbing boobys in the air and shaking them until they vomit the fish that they have caught. The frigate birds (three times the size of the boobys) catch the fish before it hits the water. I saw this many times. They also prey on the chicks of other birds and play the role of a vulture on the islands. At this point in our voyage to Bartolomé, we passed several volcanic islands. Washington asked that we all climb to the highest deck on the ship. As we approached Bainbridge Island, a crater island, we just were able to peer over the lowest part of the rim to seen a central salt lake formed by the sea seeping through the porous rock. A large flock of flamingos were feeding in it. The crater looked like the secret base of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus in the Disney film 20,000 leagues under the sea.

Around this point, we crossed the Equator and entered the northern hemisphere. We also passed a small island to the east called Daphne Major. This is the most famous of several islands where Princeton Biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant studied the effects of natural selection on entire populations of Darwin's finches. Their dramatic documentation of how rapidly natural selection can act and its role in speciation is brilliantly described in Jonathan Weiner's Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Beak of the Finch: story of evolution in our time. I read it after this trip and I recommend it highly.

Pinnacle rock, Bartolomé Island Photo by Lionel Jackson

Penguins north of the equator, Bartolomé Island Photo by Lionel Jackson

We were about to drop anchor by Pinnacle Rock on Bartolomé Island, one of the most photographed features in Galápagos. Home to the only penguins living in the northern hemisphere. After we had lunch and siesta, we landed to snorkel with the penguins and assorted marine iguanas. Where else could you do that? I missed most of the action with the penguins but they were zipping around where Al went. I did follow some good size octopuses around the bottom. They are fascinating. The way they can change their colouring almost instantly is amazing. We motored around the rocks in the Zodiac in order to photograph the penguins.

View from summit of Bartolomé Island of spatter cone with Santiago Island in the background (looking south west) Photo by Lionel Jackson

View from summit of Bartolomé Island of former cindercones islands that were incorporated into Santiago Island by lava flows erupted in the 1880s (looking west) Photo by Lionel Jackson

We climbed to the top of the summit in the picture above for a view of the sun setting over Pinnacle Rock and the adjacent bay and a breath taking view of Santiago Island. It was a back to Guantanamera and a cold beer before dinner. Everyone was excited about our swim with the penguins and marine iguanas. Dinner was always a fun affair but the conversation was even more animated than usual.