Bartolome

13 May 2024

Bartolome

Yesterday was a busy day. We left the anchorage at Bahia Seymour around 6 am. The plan was to make our way quickly towards Isla Bartolome, for the perfect picture of the Oosterschelde. This may be the most iconic location of all of the Galapagos Islands. Thinking of Galapagos most people will picture the famous rock pinnacle. The movie “Master and Commander” only added to the fame of this place, since the scene in the Galapagos is set here!

The three hours it took us to get to the perfect picture spot, we used to ensure everything on deck was tidied up properly and all the sails were furled as neatly as possible. The flags were swapped for new and clean ones. All to ensure that our beautiful ship was as ready as can be for her photoshoot. As soon as we arrived at the desired location the dinghy was lowered into the water.  Today both the Oosterschelde and her little tender were going to make a lot of miles! 

The camera crew landed first to start on a climb up 500 steps to reach the viewpoint on Bartolome for the Birdseye perspective on the scene. Then the guests that came along for the cruise to this special place went for a ride in the dinghy along the shore of Bartolome Island. Here we could get close to resting Galapagos penguins, sealions, blue-footed boobies and whitetip reef sharks. Afterwards we landed on the youngest part of San Salvador. The lava flow from around 127 years ago still looks like it had just solidified a moment ago.

In the afternoon the camera crew was brought to the rocky shore of San Salvador for a different perspective and the guests went snorkeling with sea lions and penguins. In the meantime the Oosterschelde kept on slowly moving between the two islands to give as many moments as possible for the film crew to get the perfect shot. And of course a few action shots taken of the ship from the dinghy could not be missed. 

When everyone was back on board we made our way back to Bahia Seymour. At the end of the day everyone was happy, tired, a little sun burned, but very satisfied with all the wildlife sightings and all the film material gathered. Nice to have visited such a famous and iconic location!