Isabela Island: Urbina Bay and Tagus Cove
Today we anchored at Urbina Bay, a famous place on the Galápagos map, since five kilometers of shoreline were uplifted fifteen feet at once in 1954. The landing area was a gorgeous beach, and our guests disembarked from the Zodiacs with ease. We walked along the newly uplifted shore, meeting long-time dead creatures, lots of marine life encrusted to the rocks who met the hard goodbye half a century ago. But we also met the living: giant tortoises of all sizes, roaming slowly along the trail, together with many land iguanas, in ferocious activity, establishing territories. We also met burrows like the one featured in our picture, where iguanas have their quiet moments. Yellow warblers and Galápagos flycatchers were among the common birds, until we met a female vermillion flycatcher, a highlight for the day. For the botanical eye, there were many species of trees and bushes, and striking yellow flowers.
In the afternoon we dropped anchor in Tagus Cove, a well-known place by Charles Darwin, since the Beagle anchored there in 1835. Our guests went kayaking to meet all the fauna of the area, including sea lions, sea stars, penguins, flightless cormorants, and sea turtles. Deep water snorkeling was of the same nature: astonishing. Later, we went hiking along Darwin Lake, a majestic volcanic formation in an old crater. Along the trail we observed land birds such as finches and mockingbirds until we arrived to the summit, where a lava flow was laid down thousands of years ago and destroyed all signs of life, leaving nothing but death and desolation.
It was late, after the sunset, when our guests headed back to the National Geographic Islander our home during this marvelous week. This was the end of another day in paradise.
