Isabela and Fernandina Islands
This morning, right on schedule, we found common dolphins! We circumnavigated Roca Redonda soon after sunrise, and watched thousands of seabirds wheeling and calling around this rocky outcrop. Hundreds of noddy terns, Audubon shearwaters, boobies, frigates, gulls and sea lions were feeding in the rich marine waters that surround the rock. We got a very good look at a rare dark-rumped petrel that sailed along beside us, and then we headed to the dining room for a lavish breakfast buffet.
We were just finishing the meal when the bridge called me by radio “common dolphins a mile ahead!” and so we hurried to the bow. There were several hundred of these lovely gray and cream colored marine mammals leaping and surfacing not far ahead of us and we watched their acrobatics with delight. Common dolphins are not really that common in Galapagos, so when we find a pod of them we always change course and spend some time travelling with them and enjoying their graceful antics.
Later in the morning we took a Zodiac cruise along the spectacular and steep reddish cliffs of Punta Vicente Roca, at the base of Volcan Ecuador. Here we found our first flightless cormorants and the largest marine iguanas in the Archipelago. In the afternoon, we snorkeled off Punta Espinoza, Fernandina Island. Although the visibility was not too great, what we sighted certainly was! We swam with sea turtles, and a huge ray. Some of us saw an iguana swimming and others watched a cormorant paddle past using his large webbed feet as oars. Later, both the hike and panga ride options along the black lava shores of this youngest island of Galapagos, were dynamite!
Today’s photos are from the panga ride and are of three incredibly cute baby pelicans perched on their nest in a red mangrove shrub and a curious juvenile flightless cormorant. This audacious young bird pulled on the ropes hanging from our Zodiac, swam round and round investigating every part of it, and would have gotten on board our small craft with us if he could have. What fun it is to be accepted by these wild creatures!
This morning, right on schedule, we found common dolphins! We circumnavigated Roca Redonda soon after sunrise, and watched thousands of seabirds wheeling and calling around this rocky outcrop. Hundreds of noddy terns, Audubon shearwaters, boobies, frigates, gulls and sea lions were feeding in the rich marine waters that surround the rock. We got a very good look at a rare dark-rumped petrel that sailed along beside us, and then we headed to the dining room for a lavish breakfast buffet.
We were just finishing the meal when the bridge called me by radio “common dolphins a mile ahead!” and so we hurried to the bow. There were several hundred of these lovely gray and cream colored marine mammals leaping and surfacing not far ahead of us and we watched their acrobatics with delight. Common dolphins are not really that common in Galapagos, so when we find a pod of them we always change course and spend some time travelling with them and enjoying their graceful antics.
Later in the morning we took a Zodiac cruise along the spectacular and steep reddish cliffs of Punta Vicente Roca, at the base of Volcan Ecuador. Here we found our first flightless cormorants and the largest marine iguanas in the Archipelago. In the afternoon, we snorkeled off Punta Espinoza, Fernandina Island. Although the visibility was not too great, what we sighted certainly was! We swam with sea turtles, and a huge ray. Some of us saw an iguana swimming and others watched a cormorant paddle past using his large webbed feet as oars. Later, both the hike and panga ride options along the black lava shores of this youngest island of Galapagos, were dynamite!
Today’s photos are from the panga ride and are of three incredibly cute baby pelicans perched on their nest in a red mangrove shrub and a curious juvenile flightless cormorant. This audacious young bird pulled on the ropes hanging from our Zodiac, swam round and round investigating every part of it, and would have gotten on board our small craft with us if he could have. What fun it is to be accepted by these wild creatures!
