Isabela & Fernandina
This morning we woke up to enjoy the common dolphins that were jumping close to the National Geographic Endeavour. What a great way to wake up at the western side of the archipelago, dolphins at the bow of the ship and volcanoes at the port side.
After crossing the Equator line we headed for our morning destination, Punta Vicente Roca, where we had a magnificent Zodiac ride along the coast. Here we could see outstanding geological formations, flightless cormorants, green back sea turtles, huge marine iguanas clinging to the cliffs, blue footed boobies and of course some Galápagos penguins.
As we were going back from the Zodiac ride we spotted bottlenose dolphins very close to the coast so we changed quickly into our snorkeling gear, we jumped into the Zodiacs and off we went to see these magical creatures. As soon as we entered the water we could hear them communicating with each other, it was just like a magic story told under the sea, dolphins swimming close to us, marine turtles being cleaned by king angel fish, golden cow rays eating at the bottom, dark clouds of black striped salemas and so many fish that we couldn’t tell you.
And yes, this was only the morning!
In the afternoon we landed on a lava flow on the youngest island of Galápagos, one of the largest islands around the world that has been kept in such a pristine state. Here we were brought back in time with hundreds of female marine iguanas digging their nests to lay their eggs in a vast sandy area.
On the sandy area the females fought to have some space for their nests and on the lava the males lay peacefully warming up for the night. With these prehistoric images in our minds we sailed along the coast of Isabela for our next adventure in this magical world known as the Enchanted Islands.
