Isabela & Fernandina Island
The islands this morning look so different; we are still navigating, and on the horizon we can see Roca Redonda off the northwestern corner of Isabela Island. This is the top of a huge underwater mountain that rises at least hundred feet, and it is the home of several species of sea birds. We circumnavigate to watch it from all angles.
Later we crossed the Equator Line, this being the second time, and everybody met at the bow of the ship. Two of the naturalists grabbed a piece of the line to show to our guests! At almost the same time we approached Ecuador Volcano, of which half had collapsed into the ocean sometime in the recent past. From the ship it is possible to see the inside of the caldera, and it is near this area that later we had the opportunity to do a Zodiac cruise. Along the cliff’s coast line we saw marine iguanas, penguins, flightless cormorants, and one of the rarest-looking fish, the ocean sunfish better known by its Latin name, Mola mola; later we went snorkeling with the Pacific sea turtle and other creatures that live in this amazing realm.
In the afternoon we repositioned the ship off the coast of Fernandina Island, considered the most pristine in the entire archipelago. There we walked into the interior to see the two types of lava pahoehoe and aa, terms that have been used by the Hawaiians. We also walked by a nesting area of marine iguanas, and nearby we counted hundreds of them basking on the black lava rocks.
The flightless cormorants are nesting near the trail, a spotted eagle ray passed by a couple of times in the shallow water as if saying to us “I am here”, and the top natural predator, the Galápagos hawk, watched us from a branch of mangrove.
When we thought that was the end of another beautiful day and nothing else could surprise us and make feel us more fulfilled, bottle-nosed dolphins appeared off the stern of the ship as the sun set behind the flank of Fernandina Island.
The islands this morning look so different; we are still navigating, and on the horizon we can see Roca Redonda off the northwestern corner of Isabela Island. This is the top of a huge underwater mountain that rises at least hundred feet, and it is the home of several species of sea birds. We circumnavigate to watch it from all angles.
Later we crossed the Equator Line, this being the second time, and everybody met at the bow of the ship. Two of the naturalists grabbed a piece of the line to show to our guests! At almost the same time we approached Ecuador Volcano, of which half had collapsed into the ocean sometime in the recent past. From the ship it is possible to see the inside of the caldera, and it is near this area that later we had the opportunity to do a Zodiac cruise. Along the cliff’s coast line we saw marine iguanas, penguins, flightless cormorants, and one of the rarest-looking fish, the ocean sunfish better known by its Latin name, Mola mola; later we went snorkeling with the Pacific sea turtle and other creatures that live in this amazing realm.
In the afternoon we repositioned the ship off the coast of Fernandina Island, considered the most pristine in the entire archipelago. There we walked into the interior to see the two types of lava pahoehoe and aa, terms that have been used by the Hawaiians. We also walked by a nesting area of marine iguanas, and nearby we counted hundreds of them basking on the black lava rocks.
The flightless cormorants are nesting near the trail, a spotted eagle ray passed by a couple of times in the shallow water as if saying to us “I am here”, and the top natural predator, the Galápagos hawk, watched us from a branch of mangrove.
When we thought that was the end of another beautiful day and nothing else could surprise us and make feel us more fulfilled, bottle-nosed dolphins appeared off the stern of the ship as the sun set behind the flank of Fernandina Island.
