Isabela and Fernandina Islands
We started our day with a great view of Wolf volcano, the highest in the Galápagos, reaching 5600 feet. As so often happens when we are enjoying geology, we spotted common dolphins and a few spouts of a whale. Early this morning we also had our first sightings of mola molas, or ocean sunfish. And that was just the beginning of our day in the western realm of the Galápagos.
After breakfast we got close to another volcano, Volcan Ecuador, right on the equator line, and saw the inside of it, the heart of it, as most of the volcano has collapsed and is under water. Close to shore on our Zodiac ride, we found several blue-footed boobies and brown noddy terns roosting on the lava rocks. This is a place with abundant sea turtles and marine life in general because of the richness of the water.
The afternoon found us on Fernandina Island. We saw flightless cormorants, some of which were nesting and had chicks of different ages. We walked on a lava flow not older than 200 years, and admired the interesting features of the lava, both pahoe hoe flows, and aa flows. These are Hawaiian names used to describe the lavas of the world. As we returned to the ship, a wonderful golden sunset behind Fernandina volcano completed the richness of this day.
We started our day with a great view of Wolf volcano, the highest in the Galápagos, reaching 5600 feet. As so often happens when we are enjoying geology, we spotted common dolphins and a few spouts of a whale. Early this morning we also had our first sightings of mola molas, or ocean sunfish. And that was just the beginning of our day in the western realm of the Galápagos.
After breakfast we got close to another volcano, Volcan Ecuador, right on the equator line, and saw the inside of it, the heart of it, as most of the volcano has collapsed and is under water. Close to shore on our Zodiac ride, we found several blue-footed boobies and brown noddy terns roosting on the lava rocks. This is a place with abundant sea turtles and marine life in general because of the richness of the water.
The afternoon found us on Fernandina Island. We saw flightless cormorants, some of which were nesting and had chicks of different ages. We walked on a lava flow not older than 200 years, and admired the interesting features of the lava, both pahoe hoe flows, and aa flows. These are Hawaiian names used to describe the lavas of the world. As we returned to the ship, a wonderful golden sunset behind Fernandina volcano completed the richness of this day.
