Galapagos Day 4

Lots and lots of big waves last night, the boat was rocking like crazy. I had trouble sleeping and had really weird and disturbing dreams.Up at 7:00am for breakfast, Lisa and Kirsty feeling 100% this morning. They slept for about 14 hours straight!First stop was a wet landing on a beach on Rabido Island. We're the only boat here, one of the advantages of coming in low season. Lots of sea lions on the beach, you can walk right up to them, stand beside them for pictures, it's amazing. They have no fear of humans in any way.We snorkelled from the beach and along a rocky cliff, where the sea lions would swim around us, come right up to our face, look at you, swim away and generally very playful with you. AWESOME!!!Back to the boat around 10:00am, and left for Bartolome Island.On the way to Bartolome Island, we passed other volcanic islands. Very barren and beautiful. Black lava rock, devoid of life, some older parts where cacti or lichens have started to take root. Large frigatebirds would fly along with the boat and land on our roof and hitch rides.Lots of boats at Bartolome Island.After lunch, snorkelled from the dinghy. Saw some penguins, but they were not swimming unfortunately. When we were getting back in the dinghy to head back to the boat, a sea lion came right up the dinghy and started sniffing around, right in front of me.A bit later, did a hike to the primary volcano that created Isla Bartolome. The whole island looks lifeless, but on the island are small lava cacti, lava lizards, small plants that lizards eat and of course, along the shores, various birds and sea lions. Weirdly beautiful.It's soo cool to watch how some of the birds fish. Pelicans, for example, usually swim around, or sit on a rock or the boat, staring into the water, waiting for a fish. They'll then lunge at the fish with their massive beaks into the water to catch the fish. Boobies, on the other hand, fly high over the water, when they see a fish, they dive straight down, wings outstretched so they can adjust their downward flight, just until they are about to hit the water, then bring their wings right in, and dive into the water super fast. Another type of bird flies overhead, when it sees a fish, it tucks it's wings in right away and dive bombs in.After supper, we had a briefing for tomorrow (heading to Genovesa Island). After the briefing, the crew and guide had a dance party for everyone and taught all of us how to do the meringue. It was fun.