Isabela, Fernandina Island
Early every Tuesday morning, while cruising around the north part of Isabela Island, we hope to find whales or dolphins. This area is the richest for nutrients in the water, and the chances of a sighting are high, but this time we were not lucky; nevertheless our travelers were happy to see a spectacular sunrise, many birds and creatures from the sea: Mola molas, fur sea lions, petrels, manta rays—this is how we started our day.
Traditionally King Neptune visits our ships as they cross the equator, but this time he could not visit us since all of our guests gathered on the bridge to watch the GPS hit 0 00’ 00’. When it did, our captain Pablo Garces sounded the horn, and we all celebrated with pictures and hugs while crossing the line one more time. Later we arrived at Punta Vicente Roca at the foot of Ecuador Volcano, probably the oldest of the five active volcanoes that form Isabela, the largest of Galápagos.
A panga ride along the coast was spectacular. We found Galápagos penguins (the third smallest penguin in the world), flightless cormorants, mating green Pacific marine turtles, noddy terns, pelicans, and more. We jumped from the Zodiacs to snorkel around this beautiful bay, and as always many turtles made our day, swimming close to us, plus penguins and sea lions, and reef fish. I found my highlight—a very tame octopus stayed with me for about ten minutes! I was calling every single snorkeler that passed by and some of them saw my creature; who is the king of the camouflage: Mr. Chameleon or Mr. Octopus?
Once back on board our expedition leader Lynn asked to me to go to the bridge after lunch for whale watching, I said yes, I’ll do it. As soon as we departed for the next visitor site on Fernandina Island I began watching for whales. After 30 minutes I saw on the horizon some black fins sticking out of the water. I called Lynn, but we couldn’t see them again. Though patience is the key and finally she announced over the PA system: “Whales or dolphins, come see them!” Well, such is life, I thought we were unlucky in the morning, but later nature gave us such a great gift—we saw short-finned pilot whales and some bottlenose dolphins that followed near our ship for 30 minutes.
On Punta Espinoza on Fernandina Island, our walk was amazing. There is so much wildlife that this place is considered one of the best spots in Galápagos. Hundreds of female marine iguanas were digging their burrows to lay their eggs, cormorants were drying and spreading their atrophied wings, Sally Lightfoot crabs dotting the black lava, and sea lions as always were recovering their energy resting on the beach after several days of hard work fishing miles away from home. To finish our day, we returned and went up to the sky deck to see a spectacular sunset. What a day!
