After a quiet night, we left our anchorage off Fernandina in the early morning, just before dawn. Today we visited the largest island in the archipelago – Isabela. Roxana, our wellness specialist, led a group of guests in early morning stretching on the sky deck, and what a view they had from there. Dramatic shield volcanoes and barren lava flows contrasting against the bluest of sky and sea. The day was once again cloudless and breezy; later it was actually quite hot!
We had two hike options this morning and chose between a long, fast two mile hike led by Vanessa on a loop trail along the coast, over lava boulders, past uplifted coral heads, then inland and ending back on the beach. Naturalists Celso and Cindy took guests on the one mile walk and on both hikes everyone saw several large, bright yellow land iguanas. Some of us found a “giant” tortoise nearly tucked out of view – but, it was far from giant, as it was only a few years old! We were hiking at the base of Volcan Alcedo this morning and because of the dry conditions the giant tortoises are mostly on the top of the crater this time of the year! So, we were surprised and happy to find this little fellow.
Back at the beach there was time to relax and swim and later while we had lunch and a siesta on the ship, Captain Jaramillo navigated north and anchored in scenic Tagus Cove. Our afternoon options were plentiful and everyone had a fantastic time! The two rounds of kayakers saw penguins, sea lions and sea turtles. I took the group of snorkelers out with panguero Ruben and what an outing we had! Never have I seen so many of the rare endemic Galapagos horn or bull sharks as we found today. They seemed to be in a mood for mating because they were following and chasing one another and easily spotted, when they are known usually for their excellent camouflage and very quiet behavior. We counted 11 of them!
We also were amused by an overly curious juvenile cormorant who pecked us and followed us and pulled on our flippers. A sea lion caught and ate a fish as we watched and another grabbed a puffer fish which immediately inflated and the sea lion carried it around like a ball for a few minutes before releasing the fish.
Schools of anchovies, feeding tuna, several speedy penguins flitting past us, a cormorant that poked around in all the rocky holes along the tide line looking for a fish or octopus to catch…. It was an amazing snorkel outing!
In the late afternoon another round of kayakers set off with Vanessa (who, by the way, took a swim when she tipped the kayak; she had everyone laughing!), a group of hikers climbed to the rim of Darwin Lake with Cindy, and Celso and panguero Ricky took guests on a panga ride. The clear golden light of the afternoon was marvelous as was the sunset. We climbed to the top of a spatter cone and the view to the north, at the base of Volcan Darwin, was spectacular. And Celso and his group found sea lions, sea turtles, cormorants and mating penguins!
After dinner we convened with Naturalist Vanessa on the top deck under a gorgeous clear sky to star gaze. She used a powerful laser pointer to point out the constellations and the Milky Way as we navigated north to cross the equator in the night and return to the central islands for tomorrow’s adventures. We have had yet another full and interesting day in these enchanted islands of Galapagos!
