Urbina Bay and Tagus Cove
In the morning we woke up in Urbina Bay for our visit to the largest of all the Galápagos Islands, Isabela. We were in the southwestern part of the archipelago, and we disembarked on a platform which had been underwater for many years. One day in the year 1954, a magmatic pressure uplifted this underwater realm, and today it reveals an impressive ecology to our visitors. Today we searched for land iguanas and coral heads. It sounds hard to believe but this is the only place to have such a duality.
The sky was blue and the sun shining; along the coastline we felt a comforting breeze that kept us cool while walking. Then we started hiking inland. When we lost the breeze in certain places it felt hot as we continued on a difficult trail. After a few minutes and many meters on our walk we were surprised by a lifeless female giant tortoise which broke our heart and also allowed us to understand death is part of nature, part of life. We realized that this is a very tough place to colonize, live and protect.
Today we had a taste of what the Galápagos National Park Service rangers do in order to protect such a wonderful place by patrolling and eradicating invasive species like goats and for now a very important new invader paper or yellow-jacket wasp. We saw several Galápagos land iguanas, a few Galápagos giant tortoises of different ages and gender, different lava formations and many species of plants and birds. At the end of the walk there was a reward waiting for us at the beach, a cool ocean to enjoy, that reached the ship and allowed us to leap from the National Geographic Islander’s bow, while our young explorers were able to learn how to drive our Zodiacs in these waters.
Finally after all those water activities we were all back aboard to enjoy another delightful lunch, meanwhile our Captain repositioned the ship for our next site, Tagus Cove.
Here we had many choices for activities including kayaking and deep-water snorkeling. Soon after guests had a choice of a Zodiac ride or a hike, which gave guests a taste of what pirates and buccaneers saw when they first arrived here – total isolation.
Our expedition goes on. We are now heading to the center part of the archipelago to continue our journey of discovery; our guests are having a great time in this wonderful place called the Galápagos and even though we are having a blast, the best is yet to come.
Until the next time my dear reader.
