Isabela & Fernandina Islands
We woke up early this morning to find ourselves surrounded by volcanoes. It was very nice to get close to a very impressive half-collapsed caldera (Ecuador Volcano), on the northern side of Isabela Island.
The western side of the Galápagos Islands is geologically the newest, and therefore the one with the most recent volcanism.
Six volcanoes have merged to form the island of Isabela, their flanks attached by lava flows. The incredible contrast of colors was one of the most attractive things to see while navigating close by.
Shortly after breakfast, our Zodiacs full of guests departed from the ship to get an even closer encounter with this area. Nice geological features were observed and of course the wild life started to show up. Sea lions, marine iguanas, sea turtles, blue and nazca boobies were found all the way along the cliff, but when the wind started to pick up, we knew it was time to go to our new destination, Fernandina Island.
Fernandina is a “must” during your Galápagos trip, and today the island was at its best! After snorkeling among sea turtles in the waters that bathe the shoreline, we headed off on a walk that brought us up close to even more wildlife. This time, penguins and the famous flightless cormorants were the highlights, but of course the sea lions would never give it up and managed to get in the way to attract everybody’s attention, including mine (you would think that after nine years working here I would have learned something!). In fact they got in the way of my picture taking, so here goes, one more picture of a sea lion (this time doing its academy award performance of "Jaws.")
We woke up early this morning to find ourselves surrounded by volcanoes. It was very nice to get close to a very impressive half-collapsed caldera (Ecuador Volcano), on the northern side of Isabela Island.
The western side of the Galápagos Islands is geologically the newest, and therefore the one with the most recent volcanism.
Six volcanoes have merged to form the island of Isabela, their flanks attached by lava flows. The incredible contrast of colors was one of the most attractive things to see while navigating close by.
Shortly after breakfast, our Zodiacs full of guests departed from the ship to get an even closer encounter with this area. Nice geological features were observed and of course the wild life started to show up. Sea lions, marine iguanas, sea turtles, blue and nazca boobies were found all the way along the cliff, but when the wind started to pick up, we knew it was time to go to our new destination, Fernandina Island.
Fernandina is a “must” during your Galápagos trip, and today the island was at its best! After snorkeling among sea turtles in the waters that bathe the shoreline, we headed off on a walk that brought us up close to even more wildlife. This time, penguins and the famous flightless cormorants were the highlights, but of course the sea lions would never give it up and managed to get in the way to attract everybody’s attention, including mine (you would think that after nine years working here I would have learned something!). In fact they got in the way of my picture taking, so here goes, one more picture of a sea lion (this time doing its academy award performance of "Jaws.")
