Isabela & Fernandina Island

A curious visitor of these Islands showed up today! Fin whales near the northern side of Punta Vicente Roca! We looked at them for about 30 minutes, amazing creatures, and vagabonds of the ocean. With the clarity of the sunrise the horizon showed us an incredible geology that still strikes our eyes; even when you see it every day one never gets tired of this beauty.

Vicente Roca is a place where just a Zodiac cruise will trigger our imagination to go back to prehistoric times on earth, planet still pristine. The typical wildlife of this area is sea turtles, fur sea lions, penguins, marine iguanas feeding at the edge of the cliff.

The ocean sunfish appeared right in front of our Zodiacs and our guest couldn’t believe that such a creature exists here and that they could witness its presence. Snorkeling is required to appreciate what we described, but from much closer. The sea turtles are so innocent that no one could believe how close they would get to us, even the penguins and the flightless cormorants that were so fast underwater looking for something to feed on.

Fernandina remains unchanged by this era of tourism; the conservation of Punta Espinosa is clear by the amount of wildlife, including thousands of marine iguanas everywhere (with good camouflage!). Our hikers thought they were boulders, but were surprised when they moved, and then we saw a juvenile Galápagos hawk looking at as.

We walked along lava, pahoe-hoe and ah-ah, reminding us of the present and continuing volcanic activity of this place.