Southern Isabela
As we were approaching our anchorage spot early in the morning, we saw about six Bryde’s whales; they were very cooperative and stayed around us for a while. This was a great start to our days in Southern Isabela. This morning we had one of the most exciting and long walks of the week. After a wet landing on the beach at Urvina Bay, our spirits flew up to the summit of our host volcano – Volcan Alcedo. The home of the largest colony of land tortoises in the wild, this fabulous giant holds about 3,000 or so adult giant land tortoises living freely in the wild.
This western realm is also the strategic point for volcanism as it is now sitting at the heart of the hot spot. The Galápagos plume has offered several emissions of lava in the past years. The last eruption happened in April 2009 on the western slopes of Fernandina Island.
Urvina Bay is an uplifted area. A big shore area was pushed up to the surface because of the big volcanic activity. This happened in 1959 and since then, part of this uplifted site turned to be a great spot for land iguanas to live and nest, so, these special reptiles were the highlight of the morning walk. We also saw the biggest white coral reef exposed to the surface and tall rocks up to 18 feet high that were pushed up to the surface after thousands of years of an underwater volcanic life.
Another highlight of the morning was of course the bright land iguanas that live and nest around the area, finches, Galápagos hawks, mockingbirds, the dark-billed cuckoo and the great sandalwood trees along the trail.
The afternoon outing offered us a great experience. It felt as if we were the very first organisms that arrived to the islands and landed on a rugged, young black lava flow were nothing grows. We had to walk on rocks feeling the great loneliness and peace that this isolated place offered. The grottos in Punta Moreno offered a good array of lagoon birds including common gallinules, several pintail ducks, four very pink flamingoes and a Galápagos martin made a great contrast with the black lava flows. For those guests that felt like a Zodiac cruise, we took them to the mangrove sanctuary and saw three species of rays, lots of sea turtles, blue-footed boobies and flightless cormorants sitting on the rocks.
Today we had a real communion with nature. The highlight was the peace we found through the communion with the silent, pure and peaceful isolation of this volcanic paradise.
