Isabela & Fernandina Islands
It is so hard to imagine for me and for most of the people that were on board, that when our Expedition Leader said that we were heading towards the youngest and most active part of the archipelago, she was referring at the same time to one of the richest sites in terms of wild life. Active volcanoes and abundance of wild life: it does not sound right, but yes, this is the place where we have an incredible up-welling of a cold water current which is the source of a great food supply. Therefore, we have had an amazing experience with sea life. The encounter with a great number of common dolphins and couple of brydes whales was the appetizer before breakfast.
After breakfast, we just simply had an unforgettable Zodiac ride where we saw the two endemic flightless seabirds of the Galápagos (penguin and cormorant), and we had close up looks of the strangely-shaped fish, the Mola mola, or ocean sunfish.
Then we went swimming with a lot of sea turtles and playful sea lions while some others decided to go for an extraordinary kayak ride along the impressive shoreline of Punta Vicente Roca. All this is just a little bit of what we experienced in the morning before a wonderful delicious Ecuadorian lunch.
In the afternoon we had one of those dream places for walking, patience was not required. Everything that we were supposed to see and more came right in front of our eyes. To name one instance, one rock had penguins, blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas, Sally lightfoot crabs, flightless cormorants and as a back ground, red mangrove and cacti.
It is so hard to imagine for me and for most of the people that were on board, that when our Expedition Leader said that we were heading towards the youngest and most active part of the archipelago, she was referring at the same time to one of the richest sites in terms of wild life. Active volcanoes and abundance of wild life: it does not sound right, but yes, this is the place where we have an incredible up-welling of a cold water current which is the source of a great food supply. Therefore, we have had an amazing experience with sea life. The encounter with a great number of common dolphins and couple of brydes whales was the appetizer before breakfast.
After breakfast, we just simply had an unforgettable Zodiac ride where we saw the two endemic flightless seabirds of the Galápagos (penguin and cormorant), and we had close up looks of the strangely-shaped fish, the Mola mola, or ocean sunfish.
Then we went swimming with a lot of sea turtles and playful sea lions while some others decided to go for an extraordinary kayak ride along the impressive shoreline of Punta Vicente Roca. All this is just a little bit of what we experienced in the morning before a wonderful delicious Ecuadorian lunch.
In the afternoon we had one of those dream places for walking, patience was not required. Everything that we were supposed to see and more came right in front of our eyes. To name one instance, one rock had penguins, blue-footed boobies, marine iguanas, Sally lightfoot crabs, flightless cormorants and as a back ground, red mangrove and cacti.
