Southern Isabela
Early this morning, we left our anchorage site on Fernandina Island, and navigated all the way to the central west coast of Isabela Island. We had great calm conditions this morning; a nice gentle breeze accompanied us in our exploration of the uplifted coast of Urbina Bay.
This bay was uplifted in 1954 and got a lot of attention from geologists because of the dynamic changes in the island; this also became the best place to study the formation of corals in the archipelago and the climatic conditions in Galápagos hundreds of years ago.
Some of our guests took the option of a long walk to see the evidence of the geological event, which brought up to the surface large heads of stony white corals. Besides that, this was also a great chance to find Galápagos land iguanas in their natural habitat, lots of Darwin finches, and Galápagos mockingbirds.
Our guests that did not want to go for the long walk went on a shorter one. There we found land iguanas, lots of salt resistant vegetation, and also walked over the old shoreline. After the walk we returned to the beach to have a nice cool swim; two penguins were very busy trying to catch fish while a marine iguana was swimming slowly and peacefully.
During the afternoon we had a lecture on Social Darwinism by Professor Geoffrey Lloyd. We are always learning something new and have the luck to have a brilliant mind on board. After this lecture we arrived to Punta Moreno on southern Isabela; this afternoon we went ashore for a nice walk over an immense lava flow where brackish water lagoons provide food and shelter for land and lagoon birds.
We also had a Zodiac ride along the coast of Punta Moreno where we enjoyed the beauty of the landscape and looked at cactus growing side by side with mangroves. We encountered large marine iguanas and turtles in the protected coves.
Our day was nice and sunny, and we love to be here.
