Southern Isabela Island
We slept soundly and slept in this morning, anchored all night long off Punta Espinoza, Fernandina, and began our navigation across the Bolivar channel at 0500. We had several hike lengths and distances to choose from; long and fast, long and “normal”, or short and slow, so that everyone was able to make the visit at Urbina Bay just exactly how they desired.
We landed on a steep black sand beach that is a major nesting site for sea turtles; an adult Galápagos hawk alighted on the sand, searching no doubt for any hatchling turtles that had not made it to the ocean during the night. The long hikers headed along the coast, scrambled over a pile of lava rocks and then turned inland. Those who chose the short hike followed me inland and then we looped back out on the same trail.
On both excursions we enjoyed watching finches, mockingbirds and yellow warblers, but the reptiles were the highlight of this morning’s walk. We must have seen in total around a dozen very large and colorful land iguanas. Some were digging in their burrows, others were off the trail, feeding in the drying vegetation, and happily for us, several were parked smack in the path and these big males posed wonderfully for our photos.
Tucked under a poison apple tree I spied a young tortoise! He (or she?) must have been no more than 12-18 years old and stayed put in the shade as we all hiked past and took a picture. It was unexpected to find a tortoise here because they don’t often come down the slopes of Alcedo Volcano to the coast.
In the afternoon our guests chose between a lava hike, a short Zodiac cruise and an extended Zodiac cruise. Naturalists Walter, Ximena and Juan Carlos led three groups of hikers across the huge fields of lava that stretch between the southernmost volcanoes of Isabela: Sierra Negra to the east and Cerro Azul to the west. There were pioneer plants and cactus on the lava, and a few lava lizards, but not much else, until the hikers reached three brackish pools. Here there was lush vegetation, several moorhens and three pink flamingoes!
During the Zodiac ride we entered the mangrove lagoons and found two species of rays: spotted eagle rays and huge marbled sting rays. There were penguins, pelicans, sea turtles and cormorants to observe and photograph.
We had all returned to the ship, now in a bracing wind, by the time the sun set, a fiery orange ball sinking into the sea. Another magical day in Galápagos!
