Today we continue exploring the western realms of this enchanted archipelago. Urbina Bay, our first stop this morning, is a place of great geological importance for an unusual event took place there as recent as 1954. In the scientific literature it is stated that a strong earthquake of 6.5 on the Richter scale occurred in the area on June 4th, 1954. This provoked a huge area adjacent to the coastline to suddenly uplift, leaving many marine creatures high and dry. Nowadays it is still possible to see, as noiseless relics of this event, huge pieces of brain coral many feet inland!
A healthy population of Galapagos land iguanas live around this area well. We saw several of them along the trails. We also spotted fifteen Galapagos giant tortoises in the wild! It was certainly impressive for all of us to find so many of these gentle giants. In fact, this number is a current record for this location. At the end of the walks we had the chance to cool off on the landing beach.
Once we were back onboard, the ship was repositioned to the south to Tagus Cove, where we will spend the afternoon. While we were navigating, naturalist Paul Vergara had a presentation on the Human History of the Galapagos Islands. After lunch we had an early kayaking outing followed by a deep snorkeling session. We put on our gear to explore the underwater world in an exotic location which was perfectly sunny today. We were fortunate for we had great sea turtle and Galapagos penguin sightings.
In the late afternoon we disembarked at Tagus Cove for an extraordinary, fast-paced hike along the rim of a nearby volcanic tuff cone. We saw an inner lake, aptly named Darwin in honor of the great naturalist who explored Tagus Cove when he visited Galapagos in 1835. Some guests opted to go for a Zodiac ride instead of the walk. The Zodiac ride was successful as well, for we had the chance to cover a relatively long distance, admiring the outstanding volcanic landscape and looking for wildlife.
As the day was coming to an end all of us returned to the ship joined by the last sunrays of the day with the dreamlike satisfaction of having spent a great day in one of the ultimate paradises on Earth.
