Fernandina & Isabela Islands
After crossing the equator line and entering the northern hemisphere, The National Geographic Endeavour navigated towards the western side of the archipelago, the world of the giants, where most of the endemic marine species of the Galápagos are found. While we navigated early in the morning, many small petrels of all kinds were seen on the surface of the ocean. On our way, three tropical whales were found breaching and swimming north and hundreds of ocean sunfish (Mola mola) were seen surfacing during sunrise. We finally arrived at the youngest of the enchanted islands – a place where we travelled back in time millions of years – an island known as Fernandina.
We had a dry landing at Punta Espinoza (the only visitor site on this island) where we were welcomed by a big colony of the largest marine iguanas of the Galápagos. Everywhere you walked there were many marine iguanas, absorbing heat to digest the algae they have eaten under the ocean. The peninsula area where we disembarked was uplifted (rise of the ocean floor) in 1972, so it holds a very barren landscape with very young lava fields, collapsed lava tubes and several endemic marines iguanas, along with lava lizards that are perfectly camouflaged in this area.
During the afternoon we navigated to the largest island in the archipelago, and we were lucky to spot two Cuvier’s beaked whales. This time we were exploring Isabela Island. During an amazing Zodiac ride around the snout of this seahorse- shaped island, we encountered several Galápagos penguins on the eroded tuff rocks. We also saw in the morning and afternoon the unique Galápagos flightless cormorant, displaying one of the best examples of evolution by natural selection.
We finished the day with a perfect sunset, and great knowledge about the arrival and establishment of endemic species in this archipelago.
