Isabela & Fernandina Islands

What an amazing way to start the morning! Our wake up call was an announcement inviting us to view dolphins from the outside decks! Common Dolphins surrounded our ship from 5:30 to 7:30 AM. We enjoyed them as we drank our coffee delighted by the scenery of the still active large volcanoes on the western side of the archipelago. After breakfast, we had a special ceremony as we cross the equator line. Once in the southern hemisphere, we explored the shores from our Zodiacs. We found sea turtles, marine iguanas, fur seals, Galápagos sea lions, flightless cormorants, penguins, and much more.

The sun was shining and we were ready to snorkel. Everyone had the opportunity to swim with sea turtles, what a highlight! A couple of minutes before leaving, we saw noddy terns close to the surface of the water, fish were jumping… penguins were chasing them under the water.

After lunch, and a little siesta to recover our energy, we arrived at our next destination, Fernandina Island. This island is the youngest of all; we disembarked on a lava field covered with marine iguanas. As we kept walking we found very territorial males fighting in the mating zones. We walked through a flightless cormorant’s nesting site and came back enjoying the colors of the bright Sally Lightfoot crabs. We enjoyed the Sally Lightfoots up-close as one of our guests lost his lenses’ hood in the claws of a crab. We had to argue with the crab for a long time to recover it! Can you get closer to nature? Just in the Galápagos!