Isabela & Fernandina Island
The sun rose on a fantastic and clear blue sky by the same time we were circumnavigating Roca Redonda. The island is the tip of a huge underwater mountain that goes down to 9,000 feet deep, and it’s home for thousands of sea birds.
After watching amazing geological formations, the Captain positioned the ship toward the south; by 8:30am our guests witnessed the Equator Line crossing, and we had two special visitors aboard, pirates sent by King Neptune to make the ceremony official.
Later on we dropped anchor at Punta Vicente Roca where we had water activities that had been programmed for this beautiful day. We started with a most interesting Zodiac cruise, where we were extremely lucky, as we sighted a dozen Galápagos flightless cormorants, and more than twenty Galápagos penguins; marine iguanas were fascinating as well. In the middle of our ride something suddenly appeared from the water; the whole group got very blissful as this was a very rare type of fish, the Ocean sunfish. Better known by its latin name, Mola mola, it was in front of the bow of the Zodiac - a delightful experience.
During lunch, we weighed anchor and navigated to our next island. Fernandina Island is considered one of the most pristine places on our planet, because almost nothing has been introduced there. The only one landing site is called Punta Espinoza, home for huge groups of marine iguanas, considered the largest marine iguanas in the entire archipelago. This is also a nesting site for flightless cormorants; we saw Sally Lightfoot crabs, sea lions, and lava lizards. Walking on this island is like traveling through a time-gate, to the very beginning of the island, all this happened in one day, in this wonderful paradise.
The sun rose on a fantastic and clear blue sky by the same time we were circumnavigating Roca Redonda. The island is the tip of a huge underwater mountain that goes down to 9,000 feet deep, and it’s home for thousands of sea birds.
After watching amazing geological formations, the Captain positioned the ship toward the south; by 8:30am our guests witnessed the Equator Line crossing, and we had two special visitors aboard, pirates sent by King Neptune to make the ceremony official.
Later on we dropped anchor at Punta Vicente Roca where we had water activities that had been programmed for this beautiful day. We started with a most interesting Zodiac cruise, where we were extremely lucky, as we sighted a dozen Galápagos flightless cormorants, and more than twenty Galápagos penguins; marine iguanas were fascinating as well. In the middle of our ride something suddenly appeared from the water; the whole group got very blissful as this was a very rare type of fish, the Ocean sunfish. Better known by its latin name, Mola mola, it was in front of the bow of the Zodiac - a delightful experience.
During lunch, we weighed anchor and navigated to our next island. Fernandina Island is considered one of the most pristine places on our planet, because almost nothing has been introduced there. The only one landing site is called Punta Espinoza, home for huge groups of marine iguanas, considered the largest marine iguanas in the entire archipelago. This is also a nesting site for flightless cormorants; we saw Sally Lightfoot crabs, sea lions, and lava lizards. Walking on this island is like traveling through a time-gate, to the very beginning of the island, all this happened in one day, in this wonderful paradise.
