Southern Isabela Island
We woke up this morning to grayish skies, but not even that diminished one bit the beauty of this island. Isabela is by far the largest in the archipelago, and it has a well deserved nickname of the “sea horse island” due its characteristic shape from the air. Urbina bay is located by the island’s “belly” and it was a fantastic area to visit under the gray skies’ circumstances. As we are in the middle of the hot season, the air temperature increases and the humidity is very much felt in the air, however that was not the case today, at all! The walk took place in an area of fantastic diversity and natural beauty; the path along the beach was adorned with coral heads that were raised above the sea level back in 1954. I don’t know how many land iguanas we saw today, but they are clearly not endangered of extinction!
After a quick swim from the black sandy beach, some of the guests decided to kayak along the dramatic coastline. It was quite a different experience to do kayak and to enjoy the quietness of an area barely touched by any humans. Sea birds and occasionally marine iguanas disrupted the perfect blackness of lava flows covering literally everything along the coast, but as you fixed your sight just a bit higher, we could noticed the newly formed jungle formed by the recent rains.
After enjoying our typical Ecuadorian buffet for lunch, we headed to our second destination of the day, Punta Moreno. Equally special, this area was a large, barren field of broken lava flows. However, as we walked beyond and into the trail, we found quite a few sunken areas that have been filled with brackish water, attracting all kind of plants and animals, mainly birds. To our surprise, flamingoes were spotted just behind some of the larger plants and trees, as if they were adorning the Galápagos front yard!
We returned to the ship totally wet, as rain caught us while on the island, adding yet another experience to our already successful Galápagos adventure!
We woke up this morning to grayish skies, but not even that diminished one bit the beauty of this island. Isabela is by far the largest in the archipelago, and it has a well deserved nickname of the “sea horse island” due its characteristic shape from the air. Urbina bay is located by the island’s “belly” and it was a fantastic area to visit under the gray skies’ circumstances. As we are in the middle of the hot season, the air temperature increases and the humidity is very much felt in the air, however that was not the case today, at all! The walk took place in an area of fantastic diversity and natural beauty; the path along the beach was adorned with coral heads that were raised above the sea level back in 1954. I don’t know how many land iguanas we saw today, but they are clearly not endangered of extinction!
After a quick swim from the black sandy beach, some of the guests decided to kayak along the dramatic coastline. It was quite a different experience to do kayak and to enjoy the quietness of an area barely touched by any humans. Sea birds and occasionally marine iguanas disrupted the perfect blackness of lava flows covering literally everything along the coast, but as you fixed your sight just a bit higher, we could noticed the newly formed jungle formed by the recent rains.
After enjoying our typical Ecuadorian buffet for lunch, we headed to our second destination of the day, Punta Moreno. Equally special, this area was a large, barren field of broken lava flows. However, as we walked beyond and into the trail, we found quite a few sunken areas that have been filled with brackish water, attracting all kind of plants and animals, mainly birds. To our surprise, flamingoes were spotted just behind some of the larger plants and trees, as if they were adorning the Galápagos front yard!
We returned to the ship totally wet, as rain caught us while on the island, adding yet another experience to our already successful Galápagos adventure!
