Isabela Island
Today we explored the largest island of Galápagos; this is one of the youngest and most diverse places in the archipelago. Our visitor sites today were Urbina Bay and Tagus Cove.
After breakfast, two different hikes were offered at Urbina Bay, and both showed us this special place that was totally covered with water before 1954 when an uplifting happened; these geological events are quite common in oceanic islands. While walking on this old sea floor, we came across several remains of marine life. The large number of big land iguanas right next to the trails was also a highlight for all of us. At the end of the hike we enjoyed some beach time.
When we finished our morning activities we went back on board for a presentation on Darwin and shortly afterwards enjoyed a wonderful traditional buffet-style Ecuadorian lunch; many of our guests took a lot of pictures!
In the afternoon we enjoyed kayaking, deep-water snorkeling, hiking and zodiac riding at Tagus Cove. Doing all of these activities we could explore the marine, coastal and land ecosystems very well, finding a lot of fauna, such as flightless cormorants and penguins. The snorkeling with penguins and sea turtles was incredible since this is probably one of the only places in the world where you can snorkel with these two creatures together.
The hike took us to the summit of a giant spatter cone from which we could observe both the western and eastern parts of Isabela Island as well as the main active volcanoes of the north.
