Isabela & Fernandina Islands

While navigating early this morning around Roca Redonda Island, we were struck by the great diversity of life. Along the cliffs of this very remote island we could see frigates, blue-footed boobies, pelicans, sea lions and in the distance the spout of a whale. We approached very cautiously and slowly to where we had seen it the last time; we marveled as we found there were two humpback whales, a mother and its calf. We couldn’t ask for more, they were swimming around Roca Redonda and were breaching together, usually the calf did it first and then the mother; they seemed to be having a lot of fun. We watched them disappearwhile we went to Punta Vicente Roca. Once we anchored we explored the wild coastline of Ecuador volcano which most of its aerial structure now lies at the bottom of the sea.

This morning we went snorkeling and found several Galápagos penguins, Galápagos flightless cormorants and sea lions, but one of the most amazing animals we found here were the Pacific green sea turtles, we were surrounded by dozens of turtles, some were very curious and approached us while others were sleeping, some of our guests were lucky to encounter big manta rays. It was an amazing morning.

Our day ended with a wonderful walk on Fernandina Island; this is the most pristine island in the archipelago, we had a great time watching large groups of marine iguanas, many newborn Galápagos sea lions, Galápagos hawks, and Galápagos snakes. One of the snakes was very large; personally I have never seen such a large snake in my life on Fernandina before. We had nothing to worry about since the Galápagos snakes are not dangerous for humans.

After this wonderful experience on Isabela and Fernandina we began our navigations while the sun vanished under the horizon with it gorgeous red and orange colors.