Isabela and Fernandina Islands
This was an outstanding day in the western realm of the archipelago, and we visited two of the youngest islands in Galápagos. We started our day sailing around the small “Roca Redonda” island and this is just the top of a volcano that now is the home for thousands of seabirds like Nazca boobies, magnificent and great frigate birds, and Galápagos shearwaters. It is also one of the places where one can find some cetaceans, and this morning we encountered a group of common dolphins that we followed for some time until they disappeared in the depths of the sea.
We headed towards Ecuador Volcano where those who had never crossed the Equator line were finally baptized by King Neptune and his pirates. After the ceremony of the Equator crossing we had a delightful Zodiac ride along the coast of this half volcano and found our first penguins and Galápagos flightless cormorants warming up on the rocks. There were also some magnificent frigate birds with their red gular sac half inflated, many pacific green sea turtles swimming near our boats and some playful sea lions joined us for some time during our trip.
We went in the afternoon to Fernandina Island for snorkeling and all had a lot of fun as we found lots of Pacific green sea turtles, horn sharks, and even feeding marine iguanas in the refreshing and very nutrient-rich waters around this island. After we returned aboard from this snorkeling outing, we went on to Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island. The youngest island in the archipelago, we went for a wonderful walk and observed some marine iguanas sun bathing, while many were seen going in the water looking for some algae on which to graze. Beside the iguanas, some Galápagos flightless cormorants were nesting and just a little further away a juvenile sea lion was chasing a Sally light foot crab. We had a wonderful sunset as we returned aboard with some amazing stories about these two islands and the wonderful things we found there.
This was an outstanding day in the western realm of the archipelago, and we visited two of the youngest islands in Galápagos. We started our day sailing around the small “Roca Redonda” island and this is just the top of a volcano that now is the home for thousands of seabirds like Nazca boobies, magnificent and great frigate birds, and Galápagos shearwaters. It is also one of the places where one can find some cetaceans, and this morning we encountered a group of common dolphins that we followed for some time until they disappeared in the depths of the sea.
We headed towards Ecuador Volcano where those who had never crossed the Equator line were finally baptized by King Neptune and his pirates. After the ceremony of the Equator crossing we had a delightful Zodiac ride along the coast of this half volcano and found our first penguins and Galápagos flightless cormorants warming up on the rocks. There were also some magnificent frigate birds with their red gular sac half inflated, many pacific green sea turtles swimming near our boats and some playful sea lions joined us for some time during our trip.
We went in the afternoon to Fernandina Island for snorkeling and all had a lot of fun as we found lots of Pacific green sea turtles, horn sharks, and even feeding marine iguanas in the refreshing and very nutrient-rich waters around this island. After we returned aboard from this snorkeling outing, we went on to Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island. The youngest island in the archipelago, we went for a wonderful walk and observed some marine iguanas sun bathing, while many were seen going in the water looking for some algae on which to graze. Beside the iguanas, some Galápagos flightless cormorants were nesting and just a little further away a juvenile sea lion was chasing a Sally light foot crab. We had a wonderful sunset as we returned aboard with some amazing stories about these two islands and the wonderful things we found there.
