Isabela & Fernandina Islands
What a wonderful day we had today.
To our surprise, early in the morning, as we sailed on calm seas in the northern hemisphere towards the equator, an optional wake-up call came greeting us with a sunrise, volcanoes and dolphins!
Common dolphins by the hundreds surrounded our ship. Most of our guests came out on deck to witness this impressive display; this was just the beginning to our visit to the western part of the archipelago.
Soon after breakfast we crossed the equator and many of our guests were no longer “polliwogs.” Today they have officially become “shellbacks” on board the National Geographic Endeavour in the Galápagos Islands. There is even a certificate that entitles them so. King Neptune Rex sent one of his guardians, which today was a brown pelican that hovered very close above our heads. What a start.
Our captain anchored and ordered the Zodiacs to be deployed. Today we will visit Isabela Island, a panga ride along the shoreline searching for adventure, a journey of discovery. Soon in front of us, many dark figures appeared, blending with the lava. Galápagos penguins, marine iguanas, and flightless cormorants, as well as geological features of different kinds. Next to us, green pacific turtles.
Back on board we suited up, for today our snorkel will take place among these creatures: fishes (the plural of different species), turtles, penguins, and cormorants performing their daily chores right next to and under us.
As we continued to our next destination lunch was served. This time, our Ecuadorian lunch made our chiefs proud of their succulent high cuisine, an array of colors, flavors and spices make this lunch a highlight onboard.
After our optional talk about Charles Darwin we disembarked to Fernandina Island, a poetry of lava, a pristine island, an impressive volcano, solitude, isolation, and hundreds of marine iguanas sharing this seclusion as if they were monks of Mother Earth teaching us a lesson of coexistence, a lesson of respect for one another. This we were all able to contemplate with our human eyes.
Today, Galápagos hawks were displaying their supremacy as a top predator of a small ecology. Lava cactus, sally light foot crabs, a warm sea breeze caressing our skin like Thetis’s soft veil, and finally a sunset which brought an ending to a day which could never be explained by these words my dear reader. This is why I wish you could be here, so you could feel and understand why we call this place “The Enchanted Islands.”
