Isabela & Fernandina
Our eager group of birders were up before the sun, by 5:30, and to their delight there were dozens of gliding dark-rumped petrels, flitting white-vented and wedge-rumped storm petrels, and flocks of fast flying migrant red-necked phalaropes to be seen even at first light. I woke all our guests when we spotted a pod of dolphins leaping and splashing a mile ahead of the ship. At first I thought they were common dolphins, a species we often see in the area. But after closer observation of their flanks I spied a dark gray stripe – they were striped dolphins! These handsome marine mammals have been seen only once each year in the Archipelago during these past three years, by the National Geographic Islander staff. We were thrilled with the sighting and faithfully recorded the lat/long, time and number of animals on the data form that we have used for the past three years to monitor cetaceans for the marine scientists at the Charles Darwin Station.
We had an abundant and scrumptious breakfast and then celebrated crossing the Equator at sea. National Geographic expert Kitty Coley talked on deck about Volcan Ecuador as we navigated slowly past this spectacular cross-sectioned caldera. As soon as the ship had anchored at punta Vicente Roca, and the Zodiacs had been lowered, we boarded them with 12 guests per boat, and cruised slowly along the rugged and dramatic coast. We counted sea turtles, watched courting cormorants, discovered feeding and swimming marine iguanas and learned more about the volcanic features.
Back on the ship we wiggled into our wetsuits and returned to the Zodiacs which took us out again, this time to snorkel in the protected bay among dozens of huge green sea turtles. Penguins flashed by chasing minnows and a cormorant carrying seaweed to his nest mate swam between and then under us. We had an amazing experience among the many unique and fearless marine creatures of Galápagos!
Naturalist Gilda called me from the bridge during our siesta hour; “whale spouts ahead!” she yelled. The birders had seen two spouts and the dorsal fin of a whale off the stern and in all we counted about 6 Bryde whales this afternoon. Once the whales were all behind us, Gilda spoke to us about Charles Darwin and his trip to Galápagos.
Our afternoon visit to Punta Espinoza, Fernandina was a marvelous finale to a full and amazing day. Over the course of the afternoon, the sun dropped slowly towards the horizon and the afternoon cooled off. Along a rough pahoehoe lava flow, we found marine iguanas by the hundreds, males aggressively nodding at the females and advertising their readiness to mate. A young hawk perched in a shrub screech and peeped as we passed him, all afternoon long. Sea lions swam or rested and the males barked and defended their territories. We spotted an octopus in a tide pool and several sea turtles. As the afternoon light faded to golden we motored back to the ship; all of us had peaceful smiles of satisfaction on our faces. What a wonderful day!
