Isabela & Fernandina Islands
This morning, the sunrise welcomed us at the northern tip of Isabela Island, the largest island located at the western side of the archipelago. Cindy announced a Bryde’s whale sighting, a type of whale that may be seen in Galápagos almost all year round. The National Geographic Polaris was slowly heading southwest and making its way across the equatorial line from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere.
The landscape of Ecuador volcano is extremely dramatic; scientists think that a catastrophe caused the caldera to collapse into three different parts some 150,000 years ago. Some of the rocks remain at great depths of ten thousand feet beneath the surface of the sea.
On Sunday we had a confirmed sighting of a spiny-tailed or long-tailed ocean sun fish off Española Island, which was in fact the first sighting of that genus in the Galápagos. After the excitement of that encounter, we thought that we were not going to be able to find another one. How wrong we were! There they were, swimming in the first rays of light everywhere we looked, showing their long dorsal fins in very shallow waters at Punta Vicente Roca.
The rocks teemed with life, fur seals nursed their babies, marine iguanas dug their nests, blue-footed and Nazca boobies perched in the ledges of the cliffs near the third smallest penguin in the world: the Galápagos penguin.
In the afternoon the National Geographic Polaris heads further south and west to visit Punta Espinoza, located at the northeastern tip of the youngest island of Galápagos, “Fernandina”. Here we have to look carefully where we are walking since we could easily step on marine iguanas whose colors are just the same as the fresh lava flows: black. This is a camouflage that protects them from the predation by Galápagos hawks which are patiently waiting for a weak female or an oblivious baby to hunt. These incredible masters of the winds are not afraid of human beings at all; the adult hawks were perched on a piece of wood until one caught an iguana and took it to a juvenile hawk that was waiting under the protection of the mangroves, and offered it to him (or her) right in front of us!
Further proof of the ecological naïveté of Galápaganian animals (they approach human beings) presented itself this afternoon: a male yellow warbler posed and sung in front of the cameras as if he was studying us.
What he was trying to tell us, we could not know. When we finally came home, we were tired. It has been a long day, nonetheless we were in such a stage of contentment that we were awash with thankfulness for another beautiful day in paradise.
This morning, the sunrise welcomed us at the northern tip of Isabela Island, the largest island located at the western side of the archipelago. Cindy announced a Bryde’s whale sighting, a type of whale that may be seen in Galápagos almost all year round. The National Geographic Polaris was slowly heading southwest and making its way across the equatorial line from the northern hemisphere to the southern hemisphere.
The landscape of Ecuador volcano is extremely dramatic; scientists think that a catastrophe caused the caldera to collapse into three different parts some 150,000 years ago. Some of the rocks remain at great depths of ten thousand feet beneath the surface of the sea.
On Sunday we had a confirmed sighting of a spiny-tailed or long-tailed ocean sun fish off Española Island, which was in fact the first sighting of that genus in the Galápagos. After the excitement of that encounter, we thought that we were not going to be able to find another one. How wrong we were! There they were, swimming in the first rays of light everywhere we looked, showing their long dorsal fins in very shallow waters at Punta Vicente Roca.
The rocks teemed with life, fur seals nursed their babies, marine iguanas dug their nests, blue-footed and Nazca boobies perched in the ledges of the cliffs near the third smallest penguin in the world: the Galápagos penguin.
In the afternoon the National Geographic Polaris heads further south and west to visit Punta Espinoza, located at the northeastern tip of the youngest island of Galápagos, “Fernandina”. Here we have to look carefully where we are walking since we could easily step on marine iguanas whose colors are just the same as the fresh lava flows: black. This is a camouflage that protects them from the predation by Galápagos hawks which are patiently waiting for a weak female or an oblivious baby to hunt. These incredible masters of the winds are not afraid of human beings at all; the adult hawks were perched on a piece of wood until one caught an iguana and took it to a juvenile hawk that was waiting under the protection of the mangroves, and offered it to him (or her) right in front of us!
Further proof of the ecological naïveté of Galápaganian animals (they approach human beings) presented itself this afternoon: a male yellow warbler posed and sung in front of the cameras as if he was studying us.
What he was trying to tell us, we could not know. When we finally came home, we were tired. It has been a long day, nonetheless we were in such a stage of contentment that we were awash with thankfulness for another beautiful day in paradise.
