We woke up today in the northern realm of Isabela Island. We looked for marine mammals and were very lucky – we immediately saw a large pod of common dolphins and, at a distance, we observed the lonely spout of a whale. We had great clear skies with a nice gentle breeze while we enjoyed the magnificent view of the large shield volcanoes of Isabela.
After breakfast we crossed the equator line while navigating in front of a volcano and marveled at the view of the interior of the caldera. This volcano shows several volcanic features because half of it is under the water and the other half is still standing. As we arrived at Punta Vicente Roca we had a ride on our Zodiacs along its coast and found some Galpagos marine iguanas, green sea turtles, Galápagos fur seals, and flightless cormorants amongst other species of birds.
We returned aboard to get into our snorkeling gear and head into the water. There we joined turtles, sea lions, cormorants, the amazing sun fish, and even Galápagos penguins in the area. This was an outstanding snorkeling outing, and everyone loved it.
This afternoon we headed to Fernandina Island. There we looked at large colonies of Galápagos marine iguanas; the marine iguanas and the black young lava flows looked very similar and several times we were surprised by the numbers of these reptiles sunbathing all over the place.
Along the coast and very close to the marine iguanas we also encountered several sea lion pups; some of them with their mothers while others were off on their own. Their mothers usually leave their young on the coast while they look for food in deep waters, far from the shore.
At the end of our afternoon we returned to our ship with the last colors of the sunset.
