Isabela Island, Urbina Bay & Tagus Cove
It was early in the morning when we decided to disembark for the first time to the island of Isabela. The place that we visited is a recent formation from 1954. Urbina Bay has a lot of land wildlife, such as tortoises and land iguanas. Tortoises have existed in Volcano Alcedo for a long time, and they are known to live for up to 200 years. Our first impression in Urbina Bay was a green sea turtle that in the process of building a nest was taking longer than usual. Normally green sea turtles cover their eggs at night, so finding her there during the early morning was a complete surprise. Some of our guests had the opportunity to see a special moment when she traveled down the beach to the sea.
It was great to see that at this time of year the land tortoises from Alcedo volcano are wandering around the lowlands in search of water. We saw a medium-sized tortoise and a probably 12-year old juvenile resting under the shade of a poison apple tree. We found a few land iguanas outside of their burrows, some sleeping and some eating.
Our guests had a great experience today. The photographers in particular got to see a Galápagos hawk up close. We whistled to the hawk and he hovered over us, giving everyone a great photo opportunity. The tortoises were also very impressive and made for some interesting encounters and fantastic pictures.
We spent the afternoon at a completely different part of Isabela: Tagus Cove. This is one of the last places around the archipelago that whalers visited before heading 3,000 miles into the Pacific waters in search of Sperm whales. Some of them left inscriptions behind on the rocks, just in case they never returned, to let the rest of the world know where they were for their last stop. The light was beautiful and warm for photography in Tagus Cove. We got to interact with a lot of sea turtles and some penguins while snorkeling there. The water was a bit colder than usual, which brought us more species of fish and birds than we normally get to see, because cold water carries more nutrients.
In the afternoon, the guests walked up past Darwin’s Lake just in time for the sunset. The views were spectacular. From the highest point of the hike, we could see Darwin’s Volcano and Wolf’s Volcano, the highest point on the Galápagos archipelago.
