Geomorphologist's delight

 

Friday afternoon May 31st

 

After the usual excellent seafood lunch with three salads, we raised the anchor and sailed most of the way to Sullivan's Bay on Santiago Island near Bartolome Island with its characteristic pinnacle, the most visited part of the archipelago - there were eight boats moored there, some day-trippers from Puerto Ayura.

 

 

The panga landed us on the rocks near the beach and Diego talked to us about the rocks which were the result of the youngest lava flow that tourists can visit, only 150 years old, that had almost filled in the Bay since Darwin's visit.

 

 Very viscous, ropey (pahoehoe) lava had flowed down to fill the bay from a satellite crater 4km away.







The rope and pillow shapes were fantastic, with numerous cooling cracks that showed the various mineral layers.

We walked up the lava field, seeing how it flowed between several very young cinder cones of more red, softer porous rock. 

 

 Here Diego took our group photo. Drew and Jane third and fourth from the left, Jane's sister Jenny third from the right.

 

When we got back to the beach we went for a snorkel along the shore. Some of the others saw a playful sea lion and some sharks and rays - I only saw the large depressions in the sand made by the rays. There was a nice patch of orange coral and a feeding school of yellow tailed surgeon fish, a leather fish in a crevice and the usual large parrot and Mexican hog fish.

After dinner we raised anchor and headed north-west for Genovesa Island, a seven hour, overnight navigation.