Isabela Island
Today was another astounding day at the west coast of Isabela.
We visited two sites on the largest island of Galápagos, Isabela. Before breakfast we disembarked at Urbina Bay, a platform that was underwater until 1954 when a magmatic pressure uplifted this underwater realm 15 feet! This event revealed thousands of marine animals like lobsters, shells, sand dollars, but the most impressive beings are the huge coral reefs that now lay in the middle of this platform totally bleached by the equatorial sun. As the land iguanas that live in this area dig their burrow nests, they bring out astounding fossils pieces of tubeworm shells and sea urchins that make us realize the dynamism of our planet. Today we saw some land iguanas as they were coming out of their burrows to warm up with the first rays of sun and get ready for another day of food as the islands are very dry. We also saw a juvenile giant tortoise and many more plants and birds.
Back aboard we were rewarded with the presence of bottlenose dolphins that came so close to the ship that we could almost go swimming with them.
In the afternoon as the captain was sailing towards our next destination, we were fortunate to see dozens of waved albatross flying and resting on the ocean, blue-footed boobies diving for fish, and frigate birds chasing them to steal their catch.
Our next adventure started as we landed on Punta Moreno “lava-land,” an impressive display of lava formations of different kinds, colors, and textures. Some of it is smooth and others sharp as glass, miles and miles of this strident frozen rock and yet, after a mile a stunning oasis of green vegetation appeared and we were surprised, one more time, with the wonders of Galápagos. Pink flamingos stood in the middle of this small lagoon adding color to this magnificent site that very few people get to visit to see this wonder of life in the middle of such an inhospitable terrain.
So this is why this archipelago is known to be enchanted.
