Isabela & Fernandina Islands
Today it was my turn wake up early and be on marine mammal duty. It was a glorious morning, with a nice sunrise. All of a sudden we encountered this huge pod of bottle nose dolphins which played and followed the National Geographic Endeavour while it was going around Roca Redonda. Roca Redonda is the most western piece of land in the Galápagos and home to hundreds and hundreds of sea birds, and one of the good scuba diving sites.
After this, the ship headed towards Punta Vicente Roca and on the way we encountered a huge sperm whale which hung around for awhile and then finally tail lobbed, spectacular. We kept going and on the way we celebrated the crossing of the equator line. We made the guests cross under the line and they became shell backs. Once we got to Vicente Roca, the ship dropped anchor and we all went for a Zodiac ride and saw penguins, turtles, flightless cormorants and more.
The coast was a bit rough so I took people out in the open ocean and guess what we found? We found a whale shark, and it had remoras, which is a parasitic fish hitchhiking on this big creature. I radioed the other Zodiacs and all the guests got to see it.
After this we all came back on board. Jay, the National Geographic Photographer, and I got changed into swimming gear and went back to see if we could find the whale shark. No luck. But instead we encountered the Pacific Ocean sunfish (Mola mola), and we jumped in. Jay took photos, Jean Roche, my colleague, took video footage. And all of a sudden we encountered a huge manta ray; we followed it until we got tired. We got back in the Zodiac and found the sunfish again. I got in with a video camera and took probably the best footage, which we will see tonight.
After all this excitement, the National Geographic Endeavour motored towards Fernandina Island, while we all enjoyed a traditional Ecuadorian lunch. At 2:30 we all went ashore to visit Punta Espinoza, the most pristine place on earth. We got to see large marine iguanas, sea lion pups that played fetch with sticks, in addition to sea turtles, sting rays and golden rays, and flightless cormorants. Also, we spotted a Galápagos constrictor snake, Sally Lightfoot crabs and hermit crabs, lava lizards, lava cactus, and a healthy sea lion with malformed fins.
After a fabulous afternoon, we came back on board the ship, weighed anchor, and headed towards Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, where we will spend the day tomorrow. This was an amazing day in paradise!
