Isabela & Fernandina Islands
Early this morning found us along the northern shores of Isabela Island. Many of us did not even wait for the wake up call but were already up and on the outer decks looking for possible sighting of marine mammals. The effort of getting up early while on vacation paid-off well since it didn’t pass too long until we spotted our first Bryde’s whale of the day. We know by past experiences that these animals have a very erratic behavior and are hard to follow, but this morning we were quite lucky. The rorcual stayed with us for quite a while and let us approach the ship very close, at least enough to give us an excellent view of its entire body.
Later on, precisely while we were crossing the equator line, a small party of pirates boarded our ship to sacrifice some of the guests (well, not quite really…) in order to have nice calm seas in the future. Fortunately, these pirates looked very friendly and we all enjoyed having them on board!
After crossing the Equator, our Captain kept the course of the ship towards Pta. Vicente Roca. As soon as we arrive, we headed with our Zodiacs to an area with ample wild life such as sea turtles, penguins feeding, boobies plunge diving and the highlight for many of us, the allusive ocean sun fish.
In the afternoon we sat foot on Fernandina Island, a true jewel on the crown of this archipelago! Very young and pristine, Fernandina is like a place frozen in time. Lava flows cover a great extent of the island and a big, single shield-shaped volcano forms the entire Island. The late afternoon gave us the gift of a wonderful sun setting behind this imposing volcano, so it was time to wrap it up and reluctantly came back to our home away from home, the Islander!
Early this morning found us along the northern shores of Isabela Island. Many of us did not even wait for the wake up call but were already up and on the outer decks looking for possible sighting of marine mammals. The effort of getting up early while on vacation paid-off well since it didn’t pass too long until we spotted our first Bryde’s whale of the day. We know by past experiences that these animals have a very erratic behavior and are hard to follow, but this morning we were quite lucky. The rorcual stayed with us for quite a while and let us approach the ship very close, at least enough to give us an excellent view of its entire body.
Later on, precisely while we were crossing the equator line, a small party of pirates boarded our ship to sacrifice some of the guests (well, not quite really…) in order to have nice calm seas in the future. Fortunately, these pirates looked very friendly and we all enjoyed having them on board!
After crossing the Equator, our Captain kept the course of the ship towards Pta. Vicente Roca. As soon as we arrive, we headed with our Zodiacs to an area with ample wild life such as sea turtles, penguins feeding, boobies plunge diving and the highlight for many of us, the allusive ocean sun fish.
In the afternoon we sat foot on Fernandina Island, a true jewel on the crown of this archipelago! Very young and pristine, Fernandina is like a place frozen in time. Lava flows cover a great extent of the island and a big, single shield-shaped volcano forms the entire Island. The late afternoon gave us the gift of a wonderful sun setting behind this imposing volcano, so it was time to wrap it up and reluctantly came back to our home away from home, the Islander!
