Isabela Island
Today was our second day on the western side of the Galápagos Islands, and we found ourselves surrounded by young volcanoes as the morning came. We planned to visit Urbina Bay, an uplifted part of the island; our goal was to see the largest area of coral known in the archipelago. As we approached the landing today, we saw the steep beach with clear tracks left by turtles which had come to nest the night before. The tracks where so fresh that it seemed these gentle creatures had departed only a few minutes before our arrival.
As we began our hike, we were surrounded by many finches that were happily eating seeds from the ground and trees, and before we could even get close to them we were greatly surprised by an immature giant tortoise. We couldn’t have been happier! We had already met our expectations for the day… when we found an iguana track and followed it into the bushes. There it was bright and yellow, well hidden under the yellow Cordia trees. As we continued our hike, we found seven giant tortoises and around the same number of land iguanas along the trail. It was absolutely wonderful to see these beautiful creatures at home.
As we walked back to the beach, a couple of Galápagos Flycatchers kept following us and jumping from branch to branch to (almost) hats… what an incredible experience it was to see that these unafraid creatures are as curious of us as we are of them!
The sea water was very refreshing at the beach, and some of us decided to swim back to the ship in a “megaswim” of 0.3 nautical miles (600m)!
In the afternoon some people signed up to take the kayaks out in the bay. Since the water was very calm it was easy to paddle and became an enjoyable activity, quite relaxing even. There were penguins on the rocks, turtles in the water and flightless cormorants nesting. Snorkelers discovered that the sea turtles were eating amongst the sea of seaweed, rays were everywhere and the surgeon fish were larger than what we had seen before.
The active walk at the end of the afternoon recruited more than 20 people that went up to the top of the Mirador in Tagus Cove. Incredible scenery with the sun setting behind Fernandina Island painted the sky with colors difficult to capture if it weren’t for the pictures taken at the moment.
As we walked back to the ship we realized that our day in the enchanted archipelago couldn’t have been a more interesting and enjoyable at the time, having the chance to share these islands with their inhabitants is an experience that is highly recommended…
