Fernandina and Isabela Islands

At 5:45 a.m. my clock woke me up. I walked to the bridge of the National Geographic Endeavour and, with binoculars, started my search for whales, dolphins or any other big creature that might be out there. I then walked toward the sun deck and found just a couple of our early-bird guests taking pictures of the shield volcanos along Isabela island while the sun rose slowly and painted the clouds a very intense red-yellowish color. What a great morning! I could foresee a surprise at any moment as more and more of our travelers joined us; it seemed like one of those concerts that gradually fill with people, and then suddenly it is full, ready for the show to start!

A quarter-mile ahead of us the calm sea was agitated by hundreds of common dolphins that jumped and played on the surface. We exclaimed “Dolphins, dolphins!” and our video chronicler ran with his camera to get very good footage, and hundreds of pictures were taken by our travelers. Our captain followed them for about 25 minutes and then we said goodbye to these marvelous creatures. I never get tired of seeing them; after all, we don’t see them every day. Finally, the early bird gets the worm.

Breakfast gave us energy to explore these two magical places; we walked on Punta Espinoza, a very pristine place at the foot of one of the most active volcano on earth “La Cumbre.” It erupted two years ago, and I went there twice to see it. I explained to our guests that in Galápagos a new volcanic eruption can happen at any time.

During our walk we observed colonies of marine iguanas, some of them heading to the water to feed on ulva algae, others basking under the equatorial sun. Around the point of this visitor site we saw sea lions playing in the intertidal pools and cormorants drying their wings on the black lava; it seems they forgot that they lost their ability to fly, and now are one of the best examples of adaption in Galápagos—they are unique, they are the flightless cormorants.

Later we snorkeled along the shoreline of Fernandina. Many turtles, penguins, sea lions, sea horses and a wide variety of multicolored fish passed in front of our eyes. One of our guests remarked “It is the best snorkeling of my life.”

After lunch we moved to Isabela Island. Punta Vicente Roca is an unrepeatable place, but before having our Zodiac ride there with penguins, cormorants and many kinds of seabirds, we had a visit from King Neptune; all the pirates came and baptized our young travelers. The kids enjoyed this ceremony of crossing the equator, prepared by our staff.

A star-gazing session after dinner was the frosting on the cake at the end of another wonderful day in this enchanted archipelago.