Isabela & Fernandina Island
The western side of the archipelago was the place that inspired a young whaler to write his book: “The Enchanted”, the same author, years later, known all over the world for his book Moby Dick. Herman Melville navigated the same waters that the National Geographic Islander did today. Early in the morning we started our day on the outer decks of the ship. We were looking for surprises, and we had a lot of them today! We were surrounded by volcanoes with amazing scenery, when finally we spotted a Bryde’s whale! They are known for their shy reaction to boats, but we were still able to enjoy its majesty and beauty, even from a distance.
We crossed the equator line before getting in our Zodiacs to explore the shores of Isabela Island. It is amazing to see the biodiversity of the different islands as we change locations around the archipelago. We spotted Galápagos penguins, flightless cormorants, sea turtles and fur seals. All of them new species on our wildlife lists for the week. We swam with sea turtles during the snorkel and came back ready to warm up with a delicious hot chocolate.
In the afternoon, we were navigating to Fernandina Island when our young explorers called us with the great news: about ten Bryde’s whales were around our boat! We went running to the outer decks to observe them! How fortunate we felt about this encounter!
Later, we disembarked on Fernandina Island. Punta Espinoza is a peaceful place to walk around. The wildlife is mainly dominated by hundreds of marine iguanas that cover the lava fields. We found some flightless cormorants drying their wings, Galápagos hawks were flying above our heads and we even found a snake in the middle of the trail.
If we were looking for a surprise we found many today! That is the magic of the islands, you never know what to expect, but at the end of the day you cannot believe all the wonders that nature offered you!
