Isabela & Fernandina Islands: Vicente Roca Point & Espinoza Point, 6/7/2022, National Geographic Islander
Aboard the
National Geographic Islander
Galápagos
The day started early as we navigated the channel between Fernandina and Isabela Islands. We woke up early in order to look for whales in this special area, and we spotted a Bryde whale! The morning continued with a Zodiac exploration of the visitor’s site on Vicente Roca Point. The volcanic area does not allow disembarkation, so we enjoyed the visit by snorkeling and swimming with sea turtles, sea lions, and flightless cormorants.
In the afternoon, we went hiking on Fernandina Island. The visitor’s site is located in one of the very few sandy areas of the island, which is one of the main iguana nesting sites. As soon as we arrived, we were surprised by a snake attack on a juvenile marine iguana! The racer snake constricted the iguana and swallowed it in front of our cameras. The site is full of marine iguanas; our groups enjoyed an amazing spectacle of life and survival today.
Ramiro is Ecuadorian, born in the highlands and raised by the sea. Growing up in the Galapagos was for him an opportunity to learn from up close the importance of understanding and respecting all forms of life. He started his studies in biology and e...
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Today was the first full day of our expedition…so exciting! We started our morning with a wonderful breakfast prepared by our expert chef. Afterwards, it was time to get ready and board our Zodiacs. Plenty of wildlife was waiting for us! Our first visit was to North Seymour Island, a place known for its abundant wildlife. We observed male frigatebirds as they displayed their gular pouches to impress the females as they flew by. This is their breeding season, and we weren’t disappointed. We found lots and lots of juveniles and babies still covered in fuzz. Blue-footed boobies amazed us with their courtship displays. We could also see booby couples that had their babies already. Our young explorers were fascinated by the diversity of animals found on this island. We enjoyed the company of lazy Galapagos sea lions and their pups, territorial lava lizards, and yet another endemic species, the Galapagos land iguana. Today we also launched our Global Explorers program. The children joined in a tour of the Bridge and learned more about the devices needed for safe navigation. Later in the afternoon, our guests enjoyed snorkeling lessons given by our expedition staff. We were ready to get in the water! Rabida Island offers a wide variety of fish species. Certainly, the most popular companions were the playful sea lions! After a quick change of clothes, we adventured into the island, this time for a nice, relaxed walk along the beach. We found nesting flamingos, which is quite rare. This species has not bred on Rabida for at least 20 years. What a sight–wow! A baby flamingo was easily spotted, along with a family of oystercatchers, several species of finches, and more sea lions. Another wonderful day in the Galapagos Islands!
Today is our last day for explorations and having fun around the Galapagos Islands. We came to the southeast location where the oldest island is located. San Cristobal is a very unique spot where endemic animals, such as the Chatham mockingbird, were collected by Charles Darwin during his five-week visit to the archipelago. Darwin also observed the lava lizard, which has two white bands along its body. Another iconic animal found here is the red-footed booby! One of the biggest colonies is in Pitt Point, where we are this morning. This colony has been growing over the last decade. We disembarked on a greenish beach where some juvenile sea lions were playing. Then we climbed a mountain of old eroded rocks and tuff. Along the trails, we observed many lizards, finches, and mockingbirds. We also saw a few blue- and red-footed boobies nesting on the ground and in trees, respectively. After the power hike, we returned to the beach for swimming and snorkeling. Later, our younger explorers enjoyed driving our Zodiacs as part of the great experience they had with us this week. In the afternoon, we moved to Cerro Brujo, a spectacular beach at the foot of a very impressive tuff formation. The beach is breathtaking with turquoise water and soft white sand, so soft that when you walk, it feels like powder under your feet. The kids enjoyed swimming, and our adult guests walked along the shoreline to see many seabirds hunting. Blue-footed boobies were diving like torpedoes while frigates attacked them to steal their food. We returned to our ship to circumnavigate an astonishing rock formation called Kicker Rock, a very old, collapsed tuff cone. Many seabirds nest here, and sharks roam the waters. We met on the sundeck to celebrate a great week exploring the Galapagos Islands with a wine tasting and toast to this great expedition. The sunset was incredible and decorated the blue sky with red-orange colors.
We woke up to a wonderful view of a white sandy beach in the distance and a vast incense tree forest covering the lowlands of Espanola. Some of us early birds went on a pre-breakfast kayaking outing along the coast of Gardner Bay. After breakfast, we went deep water snorkeling around Gardner Islet. This was an incredible opportunity to swim with Galapagos sea lions all around us; they were playful, curious about us, and very friendly. After deep water snorkeling, we had the opportunity to go to a white sandy beach. We took walks to explore and observed a small colony of sea lions and resting sites for marine iguanas, and we went swimming. Espanola is definitely one of the oldest islands in the archipelago with interesting geology and some species that are unique to this island, such as the Espanola mockingbird and the Espanola lava lizard. The island even has its own species of racer snake. After lunch, we had an incredible talk on the oceanographic conditions of the Galapagos. National Geographic Islander pulled anchor and repositioned to a different visitor site called Punta Suarez. Once we dropped anchor, we got ready for a dry landing on Punta Suarez. This visitor site welcomed us with a large colony of marine iguanas resting right in the middle of the trail. We saw lava lizards and sea lion pups everywhere. We were extremely lucky to spot a newborn sea lion with its mother right at the place of birth (we could see the afterbirth still around). We walked farther into the island and spotted several of the endemic waved albatrosses; some of them even performed their courtship dance a few feet away and gave us an incredible show. As we were photographing these albatrosses, we spotted a couple of humpback whales breaching off the coast of the landing site, a mother and calf. These two humpbacks really gave us a great opportunity to see them from every angle. This was a very unexpected but lucky sighting! Along the trail, we also encountered several blue-footed boobies with their chicks, red-billed tropicbirds, Nazca boobies, and lava herons. Espanola is full of life wherever you walk and as far as you can see. This island is truly one of the jewels in the crown, and we could not have asked for a better day than today in the Galapagos!
