It is almost the end of a wonderful week around this enchanted archipelago. Today, the expectation of finding Galápagos penguins is visible on the faces of all our travelers. Galápagos penguins are endemic to the islands, but they are found on just few islands. These penguins are the fastest aquatic birds in the islands and one of the smallest in the entire world. Here, you will find penguins on rocks, not on ice!
After breakfast we explored the coast of James and Chinese Hat islands. We found sea birds such as blue-footed boobies, shearwaters, frigatebirds, striated herons, and yellow-crowned night herons. It was a nice surprise to find a juvenile Galápagos hawk looking for some iguanas on the coast, but no penguins on this occasion. Oh well! Such is nature! Maybe later on we will have more chances of spotting them on the basalt lava rock that covers the shoreline.
The Zodiac ride was nice. The landscape here is very impressive. The turquoise blue water in the channel separating these two islands is shallow—a perfect place for snorkeling. We came back on board to suit up and get our snorkeling gear and then some of us went into the water and others went to the beach. The snorkeling was great. Our guests were very happy because of the experience of swimming up close with sharks, multicolored fish, sea stars, sea urchins, and other fantastic inhabitants of this submarine world.
I took some of our adventurous guests to the beach. The moment we landed we spot a penguin. It was feeding alone but it was a very precious moment. Later we had a nice short walk on the islet. We found a newborn sea lion, probably only two or three years days, that could not move or walk easily. Many red crabs were feeding on microscopic organisms on the rocks and lava lizards were feeding on grasshoppers. Everywhere you looked there was something going on. This is what makes the islands so interesting every single minute you stay here. We were resting on a very small beach enjoying a moment of quiet when suddenly a giant manta ray came close and we stood up quickly to enjoy this gift of nature. To finish our morning we moved our boat to one of the islets shaped like a cone. It has a lagoon in its caldera, where greater flamingos fed on shrimp.
After lunch we motored to Sullivan Bay on James Island. An immense pahoehoe black lava field came into view. We landed on this very new place on earth, geologically speaking. It was formed around 200 years ago. I like this walk, where all the art is made by Mother Nature. Pahoehoe is a Hawaiian term for smooth “easy walk” lava. We walked for a mile, experiencing the astonishing landscape. It is in fact a “moonscape” covered by craters, secondary volcanoes, lava flows, and driblets.
On the way back to our ship we saw several Galápagos penguins on the rocks. It was spectacular. We were very happy to see what we had been looking for the entire day. The lesson here is: Nature decides when it wants to offer itself to us, not the other way around. At the equator, the sun sets fast. The sky was amazing, turning blue and orange. On the Zodiacs, we chatted among ourselves about our great day as we finished another exhilarating journey in Galápagos.
