Isabela & Fernandina

This morning, we had an optional wake up call for the early risers who wanted to enjoy the magnificent view of the volcanoes of Isabela Island. Some of us were on the sun deck and others were along the bridge area enjoying the view of Volcán Ecuador against the blue sky.

After breakfast, we passed the equatorial line from south to north. Our young pirates on board held up a piece of the "captured" equatorial line so we could cross this imaginary line.

The Zodiac ride along the coast of Punta Vicente Roca was breathtaking; along those beautiful cliffs we could see geological formations like dikes and sills and cinder formations. However, the fur seals and the gigantic marine iguanas also captured our attention, not to mention the flightless cormorants that were in the process of building their nests.

A little further away we saw the Galápagos penguin basking on a rock right next to marine iguanas and a sleepy sea lion. For the more adventurous Zodiacs that traveled a little farther from shore, the Mola mola or sun fish showed us their long fins for a few minutes.

The area where we went snorkeling was full with green sea turtles; it was an amazing experience to find them almost everywhere. Some of them were grazing algae from the rocks, others were resting and others were just hanging out. In the same area we saw how the flightless cormorants were diving under rocks to look for food.

As the National Geographic Endeavour sailed toward Fernandina Island we were lucky to spot a single male killer whale that was so busy eating that he did not mind us being close to him. Every time we lost sight of him, the frigate birds would guide us to where the orca was going to come out for another breath. We never did see what he was feeding on, as the only piece of evidence was some internal organs caught by the frigates.

After this beautiful show we landed on a lava field on Fernandina, the most pristine island of Galápagos. As soon as we set foot on land we were surrounded by marine iguanas, the largest in the archipelago; landing here is like going back in time.

All along this beautiful walk we saw large groups of iguanas, some of them even starting to fight for territory, sea lions pups with their mothers and at the end of the trail we found a few flightless cormorants drying their wings with the last rays of sun.