Isabela and Fernandina Islands
The day dawned early, sunrise coming at around quarter to six in the morning, and with a light “garúa” mist damping the outer decks, but not our spirits. We were approaching Roca Redonda of Herman Melville fame in his book “The Encantadas.” Birds of many species were already flying around the ship as we slowly gathered on the stern Teak Deck, and soon enough the salt and pepper appearance of swarms of spiraling seabirds from the cliffs had many of us looking through our binoculars in order to identify them. Audubon’s shearwaters, Galapagos storm petrels, brown noddy terns, Nazca boobies, frigatebirds and tropicbirds were there. Even a few of the elusive dark-rumped petrels showed up after our circumnavigation and we were steaming south towards Isabela Island, eighteen nautical miles distant.
The traverse of the equator line (with a tooting of the ship’s horn) led us into the southern hemisphere and sunshine (honest!), where we had one of the most fabulous Zodiacs rides. Manta rays and the famed “Mola mola” or oceanic sunfish popped the tips of their fins out of the water, and occasionally allowed a glimpse of their massive bodies through the surprisingly clear waters. Penguins shot past chasing a variety of schooling fish, competing for them with the brown pelicans and terns which attacked the small fish from the air. Marine turtles were everywhere, especially along the tall walls of tuffstone of Punta Vicente Roca. One Zodiac was in the right place at the right time to watch a sea lion bring to shore an octopus he had caught, and after a brief tussle with all the legs, down it in one huge swallow.
So good were the sea conditions that we changed our plans and decided to snorkel in the deep waters here instead of in the afternoon, to great acclaim and unusually warm waters for this area. Those that chose to get wet were rewarded with underwater sightings of turtles, penguins shooting past, and some even saw an oceanic sunfish down below, which the naturalists managed to capture on film with our underwater video camera!
Of course the afternoon on Fernandina Island left everyone with a sense of having seen the Galapagos Islands at their birth. She is a huge island, covered by black lava on all sides, overshadowed by the enormous volcano of the same name. She is quiet for the moment, but harboring potential eruptions for the future.
The day dawned early, sunrise coming at around quarter to six in the morning, and with a light “garúa” mist damping the outer decks, but not our spirits. We were approaching Roca Redonda of Herman Melville fame in his book “The Encantadas.” Birds of many species were already flying around the ship as we slowly gathered on the stern Teak Deck, and soon enough the salt and pepper appearance of swarms of spiraling seabirds from the cliffs had many of us looking through our binoculars in order to identify them. Audubon’s shearwaters, Galapagos storm petrels, brown noddy terns, Nazca boobies, frigatebirds and tropicbirds were there. Even a few of the elusive dark-rumped petrels showed up after our circumnavigation and we were steaming south towards Isabela Island, eighteen nautical miles distant.
The traverse of the equator line (with a tooting of the ship’s horn) led us into the southern hemisphere and sunshine (honest!), where we had one of the most fabulous Zodiacs rides. Manta rays and the famed “Mola mola” or oceanic sunfish popped the tips of their fins out of the water, and occasionally allowed a glimpse of their massive bodies through the surprisingly clear waters. Penguins shot past chasing a variety of schooling fish, competing for them with the brown pelicans and terns which attacked the small fish from the air. Marine turtles were everywhere, especially along the tall walls of tuffstone of Punta Vicente Roca. One Zodiac was in the right place at the right time to watch a sea lion bring to shore an octopus he had caught, and after a brief tussle with all the legs, down it in one huge swallow.
So good were the sea conditions that we changed our plans and decided to snorkel in the deep waters here instead of in the afternoon, to great acclaim and unusually warm waters for this area. Those that chose to get wet were rewarded with underwater sightings of turtles, penguins shooting past, and some even saw an oceanic sunfish down below, which the naturalists managed to capture on film with our underwater video camera!
Of course the afternoon on Fernandina Island left everyone with a sense of having seen the Galapagos Islands at their birth. She is a huge island, covered by black lava on all sides, overshadowed by the enormous volcano of the same name. She is quiet for the moment, but harboring potential eruptions for the future.
