Punta Vicente Roca & Punta Espinosa
In the morning, once we had crossed the equator line, we entered into the calm bay of Punta Vicente Roca in the southern hemisphere. We boarded our Zodiacs to explore its coastal cliffs, which happen to be formed of mostly compressed cinder and ash. The area was teeming with wildlife of all kinds, such as blue footed boobies, sea turtles, penguins and flightless cormorants, just to mention a few of them.
Not far away from the coast, we found a school of ocean sunfish, which happen to be one of the rarest types of fish in the ocean! A nice surprise was a Bryde’s whale which surfaced fairly close to one of the Zodiacs. Later on, we headed to a snorkeling site full of marine life. It was quite amazing to swim with sea turtles, cormorants and penguins.
During the afternoon we visited the island of Fernandina. Its single, ever-restless volcano dictates the condition of every living creature on this island. Volcanic eruptions are constantly shaping the landscape and creating new land that is shortly after colonized. Setting foot on Fernandina Island is like taking a trip to the interior of our planet Earth, where furious volcanic processes occur constantly. For the most part, the island is formed of extensive lava fields where hardly anything grows.
Fortunately, some of the species are tough enough to break the lava flows and become the new residents of the island. This is the case with the endemic lava cactus, which would erode the basaltic layers to be the dominant species in this harsh environment.
As far as we know, the life forms most likely to survive in this newly created lavas are reptilian life: lava lizards, snakes, marine and land iguanas are good examples of what one can find as we walk on the lava flows.
Beautiful lush mangrove forests around the shores are the home to several species of sea birds. Galápagos hawks and a number of small land birds also find here the shelter they need.
We returned to the National Geographic Islander after enjoying a spectacular sighting of a Galápagos hawk just a few yards from us, which we found right on top of an old dried trunk of mangrove either washed onto high ground from a storm, or a fatality of volcanic uplift, a tree taken too far from the ocean.
In the morning, once we had crossed the equator line, we entered into the calm bay of Punta Vicente Roca in the southern hemisphere. We boarded our Zodiacs to explore its coastal cliffs, which happen to be formed of mostly compressed cinder and ash. The area was teeming with wildlife of all kinds, such as blue footed boobies, sea turtles, penguins and flightless cormorants, just to mention a few of them.
Not far away from the coast, we found a school of ocean sunfish, which happen to be one of the rarest types of fish in the ocean! A nice surprise was a Bryde’s whale which surfaced fairly close to one of the Zodiacs. Later on, we headed to a snorkeling site full of marine life. It was quite amazing to swim with sea turtles, cormorants and penguins.
During the afternoon we visited the island of Fernandina. Its single, ever-restless volcano dictates the condition of every living creature on this island. Volcanic eruptions are constantly shaping the landscape and creating new land that is shortly after colonized. Setting foot on Fernandina Island is like taking a trip to the interior of our planet Earth, where furious volcanic processes occur constantly. For the most part, the island is formed of extensive lava fields where hardly anything grows.
Fortunately, some of the species are tough enough to break the lava flows and become the new residents of the island. This is the case with the endemic lava cactus, which would erode the basaltic layers to be the dominant species in this harsh environment.
As far as we know, the life forms most likely to survive in this newly created lavas are reptilian life: lava lizards, snakes, marine and land iguanas are good examples of what one can find as we walk on the lava flows.
Beautiful lush mangrove forests around the shores are the home to several species of sea birds. Galápagos hawks and a number of small land birds also find here the shelter they need.
We returned to the National Geographic Islander after enjoying a spectacular sighting of a Galápagos hawk just a few yards from us, which we found right on top of an old dried trunk of mangrove either washed onto high ground from a storm, or a fatality of volcanic uplift, a tree taken too far from the ocean.
