Isabela and Fernandina
Today was OFF THE CHARTS! Absolutely, OUT OF THIS WORLD! I have been working in the enchanted islands of Galápagos for 33 years and today thrilled me as much as it thrilled our 46 first-timer visitors. Sunrise, promptly at 0600, was gorgeous; a cool breeze, wispy clouds, golden light on the slopes of majestic volcanoes and a smooth azure sea. Leaping tunas, gliding shear waters, storm petrels, and dark–rumped petrels plus a half dozen huge Mobula rays kept us busy with our binoculars before breakfast. Soon after our morning meal, we crossed the Equator with a blast of the ship’s whistle.
Captain Pablo dropped the anchor and our crew lowered the fleet of Zodiacs. We set off with a Naturalist and twelve eager guests per boat for a cruise along the coast. We were delighted with great views of flightless cormorants, penguins, sea lions, Sally Lightfoot crabs, swimming sea turtles and huge pelagic mola mola sunfish. We were astounded when Jonathan’s Zodiac spotted two orcas blowing, surfacing and diving under a cloud of seabirds! All four Zodiacs were able to maneuver close to the spectacular black and white whales and everyone snapped photos like crazy and yelled with joy. Getting so close to wild whales as they search for food and explore freely in their natural habitat, is a pleasure and a privilege – and also an adrenaline rush – that will be hard to surpass this week.
Next on the agenda was snorkeling in the bay and conditions this morning were superb! There were dozens of sea turtles everywhere we turned and I did an official count of well over 100 during the 45 minutes we swam and snorkeled. There were large males with foot-long tails, bigger mature females and many smaller juvenile. Some were sleeping on the sandy bottom, others feeding on algae or swimming slowly along. In addition, a sea lion entertained us with his graceful underwater twirling and swirling, there were schools of thousands of fish of several species, and varied and colorful invertebrate life coating the cliff walls. This was an amazing snorkeling outing that we were all, guide and guest alike, reluctant to see come to an end.
The afternoon walk was also spectacular. We strolled along ropy pahoehoe lava among piles of jet black marine iguanas and red crabs. A chocolate brown Galápagos hawk scavenged on a sea lion placenta; the newborn marine mammal not far off with his mom. The tide was high and the wildlife concentrated on the rough lava spit at Punta Espinoza on the youngest of the islands in this archipelago, Fernandina. Today’s experiences and wildlife sightings will definitely be hard to beat, but we are going out again right after breakfast tomorrow and who knows what else awaits us in these magical islands…
