National Geographic Endeavour II spend the day exploring the northern side of Santa Cruz Island, the channel between Santa Cruz and Santiago Islands including the Daphne Islets. We started our day early with a walk around the promontory at Dragon Hill, where we were looking for the brightly colored Galapagos land iguana and a few species of land birds. Later in the morning guests explored the underwater world while snorkeling at nearby Guy Fawkes Islet. Finally, after spending the afternoon on the lookout for marine wildlife, we circumnavigated Daphne Major while sampling South American wines on the sundeck.
2/25/2025
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National Geographic Endeavour II
Isabela Island
Today we had a day full of wildlife encounters on Isabela Island. We started early in the morning exploring the coastline of Urbina Bay at the bottom of the slopes of Alcedo Volcano. During this spectacular hike, our guests had their first encounter with giant tortoises in the wild. Unlike on the island of Santa Cruz where we see tortoises while visiting private farms, the giant tortoises of this visitor site had made a long journey all the way down from the volcano, far from any human settlement, to lay their eggs and feed on the lush vegetation. In the afternoon, some of our guests went for a Zodiac ride along the coast of Tagus Cove, a tuff volcanic formation that is home to several species of seabirds. Blue-footed boobies and Galapagos penguins were the main attractions of this exploration. After a successful Zodiac ride before sunset, our Zodiac driver, José, spotted a feeding frenzy. Many blue-footed boobies and brown noddies put on a show for us to close a wonderful day exploring Isabela Island.
