Urbina Bay & Punta Moreno, Southern Isabela Island
These remote visitor sites, located in the western realms of the Galápagos archipelago, offer extraordinary habitats for a great variety of species. In the morning we explored the rugged shorelines of Urbina Bay. In 1954, a vast area of the coastline around this place was uplifted, leaving exposed areas that previously were under water. We observed and tried to identify with curiosity many remains of vertebrates and invertebrates that were scattered all over the place.
Nowadays, more than 50 years later, what we can see is a new shoreline covered with vegetation, mixed with huge brand new lava flows. With amazement we observed how pieces of coral were melted with the lava at the moment they were in contact during the volcanic eruptions. We followed the inland trail and we observed many colorful land iguanas. We were fortunate for we observed a couple of Galápagos Giant tortoises as well.
Something spectacular today was the sighting of many juvenile Galápagos hawks patiently waiting for the new sea turtle hatchlings to emerge around the landing beach. We counted up to 22 hawks! In all the years I have been in the Galápagos, since 1991, this is one of the largest groups I have ever seen. In fact, the Galápagos hawk is still considered to be a rare bird species; the total population of these powerful raptors is estimated to be around just 1,000 individuals in the entire archipelago.
After the walk we had a blast of a time! We swam at the beach, some kids had Zodiac driving lessons and we had a very popular water activity, jumping off the ship showing off different diving styles. In a nutshell, we were simply having a lot of fun!
After lunch the ship was repositioned towards Punta Moreno. This location is found in the southern part of Isabela Island, in front of two huge volcanoes, Sierra Negra and Sierra Azul. Some of our adventurer guests went out to explore, on an intense hike, the immense dark lava fields characteristic of Punta Moreno while the rest decided to enjoy this place from a different perspective, from the Zodiacs. Both options were successful for we all had a great time watching many different species coexisting in the magical Galápagos Islands.
