Today we continued our expedition along Isabela Island. We visited the central part of this incredible island, disembarking in a place called Urbina bay. After our wet landing, we had a chance to go on a long hike along an area that uplifted in 1954. The raising of the ocean floor went up over 3 meters above sea level. Secondary succession of plants was the process of creating life in this place. We were looking for giant tortoises and land iguanas and we found them: many tortoises were seen along our hike as well as some land iguanas, we even found a couple of male iguanas fighting for their right to reproduce!
We also found large coral heads on the island, as they went up with the uplifting. Also barnacles on rocks and coralline algae on boulders found far away from the coast. It was a unique experience to watch this new part of the island being colonized by land life. As we came back we saw many species in the tide pool along the coast: moray eels, octopus, plenty of small fish of all kinds, and sally light foot crabs.
After lunch, we arrived to Tagus Cove, a historical place found on the northern part of Isabela, where early sailors and pirates came to find protection from rough seas and to eat giant tortoises. Here, we snorkeled with pacific green sea turtles, flightless cormorants, penguins and playful sea lions which stayed around for quite a while. While some of us went kayaking and hiking!
The visit to Isabela is was ending, but it left an array of nice memories of the Galapagos: another day in paradise…
