Isabela & Fernandina
Early wake up met us with an interesting view of the volcanoes on the northern shore of Isabela, the largest island of the Galápagos Archipelago. Roca Redonda showed us its incredible diversity of sea birds and we had a chance to see three red-footed boobies flying! After breakfast we crossed the equator line, and many of our guests wanted to see the GPS on the bridge counting down zero latitude. Around 9 a.m. we boarded the Zodiacs and went for a long ride that took us pretty close to the ocean sunfish, or Mola molas (their scientific name), green sea turtles, flightless cormorants and penguins along the coast. Some of our guests also joined the marine creatures and off they went snorkelling among lots of pacific green sea turtles feeding and sleeping at the bottom of the shallow ocean bay.
Punta Espinoza waited for us in the afternoon; we landed on Fernandina, the youngest island of all. Young sea lions were playing everywhere and followed the Zodiac into the landing dock. The giant male marine iguanas had turned orange for the mating season. Flightless cormorants were also courting and gave us a beautiful idea on how evolution took place in this remote pristine area. Over on the other side where the lava cacti are growing, we had a chance to talk about how the processes of life take place on remote new places. A sighting of a Galápagos snake, as tame as most of the birds in the Galápagos, closed this very entertaining and special afternoon in this magical place.
Early wake up met us with an interesting view of the volcanoes on the northern shore of Isabela, the largest island of the Galápagos Archipelago. Roca Redonda showed us its incredible diversity of sea birds and we had a chance to see three red-footed boobies flying! After breakfast we crossed the equator line, and many of our guests wanted to see the GPS on the bridge counting down zero latitude. Around 9 a.m. we boarded the Zodiacs and went for a long ride that took us pretty close to the ocean sunfish, or Mola molas (their scientific name), green sea turtles, flightless cormorants and penguins along the coast. Some of our guests also joined the marine creatures and off they went snorkelling among lots of pacific green sea turtles feeding and sleeping at the bottom of the shallow ocean bay.
Punta Espinoza waited for us in the afternoon; we landed on Fernandina, the youngest island of all. Young sea lions were playing everywhere and followed the Zodiac into the landing dock. The giant male marine iguanas had turned orange for the mating season. Flightless cormorants were also courting and gave us a beautiful idea on how evolution took place in this remote pristine area. Over on the other side where the lava cacti are growing, we had a chance to talk about how the processes of life take place on remote new places. A sighting of a Galápagos snake, as tame as most of the birds in the Galápagos, closed this very entertaining and special afternoon in this magical place.
