Northern Isabela & Fernandina Islands

The highlight for the early risers was not whales and/or dolphins, as we had hoped – but rather a balmy, breezy morning and spectacular pink light on the rim of Volcan Wolf, the tallest and northernmost shield volcano on Isabela Island. We searched the horizon for large marine mammals in vain, and had to content ourselves with sea birds: Galápagos shearwaters, dark-rumped petrels, a few Nazca boobies, wedge-rumped and white-vented storm petrels, frigate birds and noddy terns. Fur seals were headed towards land, returning from a night of fishing.

We crossed into the southern hemisphere with a blast of the ship’s whistle and dropped anchor at the base of the spectacular thousand foot cliffs at Punta Vicente Roca.

All of the guests on board the National Geographic Islander boarded our fleet of Zodiacs for an hour of slow exploration along the rocky shoreline. We saw a couple dozen sea turtles, flightless cormorants, two motley, molting penguins, sea lions and very large marine iguanas.

Panguero Ricky and I spotted the dorsal fin of a mola mola and we approached this fish hoping for a good look. But no such luck. However, Sofia soon radioed saying she’d found a curious mola and all four pangas with our guests were able to get close looks at this strange fish. It swam back and forth alongside out Zodiacs and even allowed our Video Chronicler and one determined guest to try and swim with it.

Snorkeling was next on the agenda. Although the water was slightly turbid, we were all delighted to swim with over a dozen sea turtles, two frisky sea lions, and some of us saw cormorants and penguins, too. Back again on the ship we were eager for lunch and a siesta; meanwhile the Captain and crew navigated on to anchor off Punta Espinoza, Fernandina.

Fernandina is the second most active volcano in the world and last erupted in April of this year. As we approached the black lava for disembarkation we immediately began to see that this imposing and apparently barren lava terrain is anything but barren! What we had at first taken for ripples of hardened lava turned out to be hoards of marine iguanas! We observed a newborn sea lion pup, spied his fresh umbilical cord, and found a yellow sea turtle basking in the afternoon sun on a small beach. This basking behavior is unusual in sea turtles, and seems to mainly occur in the Hawaiian and Galápagos Islands. As the afternoon cooled off, the turtle returned to the ocean.

We too took to the ocean after the warm and humid hike; we leapt from the bow of the ship for a refreshing splash and swim before showers and dinner. Another fabulous day in the Enchanted Islands had come to an end.