Urbina Bay & Tagus Cove, Isabela Island
Today we continued exploring Isabela, the largest island in the archipelago; it has a great number of ecosystems where one can find a lot of wild life.
The National Geographic Endeavour dropped anchor al 5:00 in the morning in Urbina Bay, located in the middle of two active volcanoes. A long hike and a short hike, followed by some beach time after a hot morning, were our activities at this spot; walking on the trail we came across a lot of land iguanas; some were in heat, and defending their territories. The great surprise of the morning was to find two giant tortoises from Alcedo Volcano walking among us.
It’s hard to believe that Urbina Bay was totally covered by water until 1954, when an uplifting happened, pushing it up from the sea floor. After all of these years new plants have colonized the area but it’s still easy to find giant pieces of white coral and remains of sea life which prove this place was once submerged.
After lunch we headed north in Urbina Bay to visit Tagus Cove. Deep-water snorkeling, kayaking, zodiac riding and a hike were the activities planned for the afternoon—most of our guests did it all!
We saw a great diversity of species while deep-water snorkeling: Galápagos penguins, flightless cormorants, and a marine iguana feeding, A sea horse and some species of fish were seen, in addition to a small school of golden rays which passed very fast and very close to us.
The zodiac ride and the kayaking were done in the same bay, which was very sheltered with calm waters. A group of 20 swimming penguins was the highlight.
During the hike we had a little bit of rain, but we had a good view of Darwin’s Lake. It was actually kind of refreshing after the hot day to hike in the rain, and a few species of finches were seen too.
