The wind is starting to blow from the south; it is getting cooler. The season is changing, and any kind of variation brings excitement to my heart. That’s why it is a privilege to be in the Galapagos all year round, able to witness how water temperature can rise to eighty degrees Fahrenheit, with visibility of tens of feet to then drop to the sixties, the ocean becoming murkier, richer and inhabited by happy penguins.
This is a week to witness transformation and marvel at how each species adapts to the subtle decrease of a degree or two, to the winds shifting direction, to the seas getting choppier. I love to be in the transition season, and above all, to sail in the western realm of the Galapagos, where variations are more notorious.
The Equator, however, hasn’t moved. The same parallel, marking the middle of our world. We crossed it three times today, and we’ll keep going through as the week goes along. We anchored and explored the coast of Isabela by Zodiac, then jumped in its waters. Turtles, cormorants, penguins, fur sea lions, all in their daily chores, undisturbed by our presence.
The afternoon was for Fernandina, the youngest of all the islands, the one that has never had any introduced species. This was our opportunity to sit for a while and think about the privilege of landing on such a place, so pristine and fresh.
