Isabela and Fernandina Islands

We started our early morning outing before breakfast by sailing around Roca Redonda, the top of an enormous volcano that now is home for many marine birds. During our sailing, bottle nose dolphins come to us to follow the ship for quite a while as the waves were breaking at the bowl of our ship. Right after breakfast, we crossed the Equator line once again and received a visit from the friendliest pirates that you could imagine; escorting the old and ancient king Neptune ready to give permission to navigate his waters.

The most western part of the archipelago is famous because of the upwells, which brings nutrients that nurture many marine species on this region.

We dropped anchor off Punta Vicente Roca, and went to explore part of the most volcanically active island, getting very close to this remarkable landscape of the northwestern part of Isabela Island. We had a Zodiac cruise along the coastline with our guests. We observed an avalanche of volcanic material falling down from the top part of the cliff. The huge ocean sunfish, known as Mola mola, were abundant swimming next to us, and we also caught a glimpse of flightless cormorants. We later snorkeled with green sea turtles and penguins.

We came back for lunch and set sail towards our next destination, Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island. This location is an untouched island home for the marine iguanas and the only flightless cormorants on the world, the Galápagos penguin.

Here, sea lions live in harmony with marine iguanas and birds and all luxuriate in an existence without many predators. We then walked through the mangrove jungle which leads to a lava flow. We came back aboard anticipating more adventures in the next days to come.